CP Projects Space at the School of Visual Arts presents "My Apocryphal County," curated by MA Curatorial Practice fellow David Felipe Suárez Mira. There will be an artist talk with featured artist Tali Keren, during the reception from 7:00 – 7:30pm.

This exhibition explores the relationship between war and childhood imagination. In this regard, each artist approaches warfare in one of two different ways. First, innocence is used as a concept to resist war by creating parallel worlds through play. Second, innocence simulates the violence. The space will be set as a playground to explore different facets of these two scenarios through photography, video, sculpture and installation.

Francis Alÿs presents a video recorded in Nepal of his series Children’s Games, a dialogue of children’s imagination in the architecture of conflict zones. Federico Ríos Escobar includes 35 Polaroids taken of commanders of the FARC and signed by them with the age when they were recruited.

The installation High Tide by the Honduran artist Lester Rodríguez is composed of 1,000 paper ships going down a whirlpool. In this artwork the artist makes a unique reflection of economic dynamics and the collateral effects of military retaliation.

Heir to the Throne by Bill Skrips is composed of two guns made in wood and steel. The sculpture is influenced by “outsider” and New-Mexican folk art, with their characteristic rawness and spontaneity. It points out the oddities and irregularities of this life–more in appreciation than in opposition.

Jeep VIP made by Juan Obando explores the extent to which local culture has assimilated the Colombian armed conflict, to the point that icons of military presence have become toys for adults.

The artist Maria Rojas recovers an excerpt of the unknown life of the murdered politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, in the video The Revolution Is Yet to Come. The Colombian leader used to make scale models of a house that he later dedicated to his wife. In the artwork, she reproduces the models but on a large scale.

The Israeli artist Tali Keren will give a talk during the opening about a work-in-progress in VR video. The content of the edited recording shows children dancing cheerleaders’ choreographies dressed in military uniforms.

Exhibition

My Apocryphal County

Reception