SOUVENIRS
Sept 5 - Oct 5

Opening Reception
September 5, 7-10 p.m
.
And a special electronic drum performance by
Bobby Previte from 9-10 pm

Fish Tank Gallery is pleased to open its new season with the first solo exhibition of John Freyer in New York City.

Freyer’s exhibition, Souvenirs (September5- October 5), includes the photographic series, 9 Bag, 10 Bottles, and the video assemblage, motion_pictures, both of which are connected to his best-known work, allmylifeforsale.com and to the project temporama.com.

The work that makes up Souvenirs began during 2001, when Freyer, as part of his allmylifeforsale project, journeyed through the country to visit the objects he had auctioned off through eBay and their new owners. In 2002 his chronicle was published in the book, All My Life for Sale, by Bloomsbury. By the time this project was finished, it had become a world-wide media sensation, appearing in outlets ranging from the New York Times, Newsweek, the London Times, and Der Spiegel, to National Public Radio, Good Morning America, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Attempts at categorizing Freyer’s work invariably fall short, as it is a combination of conceptual project based art, performance art and photography. John Freyer uses multiple media and technologies specific to the objects and environments he creates. In 9 Bags, 10 Bottles, 30” x 40” color photographs of found liquor bottles in paper and plastic bags are presented alongside the original artifacts. Freyer elevates this everyday ‘trash’ that embodies the sad and secret history of family alcoholism, by using the visual vernacular of commercial product photography. The bottles and their larger-than-life reproductions seen together are in silent dialogue, “souvenirs” of the artist’s journey home and of a confrontation with the past and the present.

In contrast to the private, personal nature of 9 Bags, 10 Bottles, motion_pictures is an assemblage of overlapping video snapshots in constant flux which reference earlier travel photography and landscape painting. In this work, Freyer created several short animated video loops of natural places and public spaces, then reassembled independent segments to form a completed image that conflates time and space. The layering of images from multiple vantage points shifts from Niagara Falls to New York’s Times Square to the “New York” Casino in Las Vegas, taking the viewer on a shared journey across 21st century America.

The soundtrack on the motion_pictures DVD is by the composer and jazz drummer Bobby Previte, who will perform live during the opening (9pm-10pm).