Silvia Kolbowski
an inadequate history of conceptual art
Western Front Gallery
February 16 ­ March 22, 2002

Opening reception: Friday, February 15, 8PM

Artist Talk:
Thursday, February 14, 7:30PM
Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, RM 328

The Western Front is pleased to present an audio-video installation by New
York artist Silvia Kolbowski. Observing the renewed and widespread
interest in Conceptual Art ­ apparent in the numerous retrospectives,
publications, and the attention by academics, press, and the art market-
Kolbowski initiated the work to examine and highlight the subjectivity of
Conceptual Art s history.

In 1998 Kolbowski sent letters to sixty artists, asking them to respond to
the following statement: "Briefly describe a conceptual work, not your
own, of the period between 1965 and 1975, which you personally
witnessed/experienced at the time. For the sake of this project, the
definition of conceptual art would be broad enough to encompass such
phenomena of that period as actions documented through drawings,
photographs, film, and video; concepts executed in the form of drawings or
photographs; objects where the end product is primarily a record of the
precipitant concept, and performative activities which sought to question
the conventions of dance and theatre."

For the recorded interviews, of which twenty-two have been recorded to
date, Kolbowski asked the artists not to mention their own names, the
names of the artists whose work being described, or the titles of the
works. the video footage features only close-ups of the artists' hands as
the describe the works, and is played out of sync with the audio track.
The result is a document that is at once personal and anonymous, full of
omissions and embellishment. 

The artists featured in this project include:
Vito Acconci, Dennis Adams, Mac Adams, Connie Beckley, Dara Birnbaum, Mel
Bochner, Hans Haacke, Eileen Hickey-Hulme, Mary Kelly, Joyce Kozloff,
Louise Lawler, Les Levine, Jonas Mekas, Alan McCollum, Howardena Pindel,
Lucio Pozzi, Yvonne Rainer, Dorothea Rockburne, Al Ruppersberg, Carolee
Schneemann, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling.

Silvia Kolbowski is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York. Her
work was recently featured at American Fine Arts Gallery, the Oliver Arts
Center, CCAC, and the Whitney Biennial 2000. Kolbowski was Co-Editor of
OCTOBER Magazine from 1993-2000, and currently sits on its advisory board.


Audio equipment for this exhibition is furnished by Commercial Electronics
Ltd.