FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jessica Murray Projects is pleased to announce Pent-Up and Under Gone, a collaborative project by Jesse Bercowetz, Matt Bua, and Carrie Dashow. The exhibition will open Friday, May 27, 2005 with a reception from 6 – 8 pm, and will run through June 25. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm.

Inspired by the otherworldly evidence gathered in their project Under Island, exhibited last fall at PS1, in which the artists assumed the role of underworld crypto-zoologists, Jesse Bercowetz, Matt Bua, and Carrie Dashow investigate the mythologies of Roosevelt Island. In order to explore the island and its treacherous surrounding waters once known as “The Hell Gate” they launched a makeshift raft into the East River. In their new installation Pent-Up and Under Gone, Bercowetz, Bua, and Dashow explore their findings, as well as the Island’s oral and written histories, and are led to a new interpretation of the land as a growing monster of unpredictable powers, with a life of its own, undetermined by humans.

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer encounters a subdued glow, steam rises from mounds of earth, and the wreckage of a fallen lighthouse levitates above the floor. Looking into the crevices of the fallen edifice, one discerns an infestation of cockroaches and worms. Pressing on, the spectator encounters a visual labyrinth of tunnels, caves, and the demise of industry. These images appear on five monitors, randomly activated as the spectator moves about the space. Set on robot-like steel structures, these monitors appear as the heads of mechanical arachnids. On the wall, looming between these structures, gleams the mesmerizing projection of a marbleized eye. All the while, sounds from insects mix with early American a cappella style songs which whisper “crows descend, the city looking… this empire toppled some time around now”.

Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua have collaborated for the last five years. Their work has been shown at PS1/MOMA, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Socrates Sculpture Park, the Drawing Center, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Smack Mellon and Rice University Gallery (Houston).

Carrie Dashow works in video, ranging from large-scale to single channel, and performance. Her work has been exhibited at PS1/MOMA, UCLA Hammer Museum, Smack Mellon, Eyebeam, and various screening venues worldwide

For more information, please contact the gallery at 212 633 9606 or info@jessicamurrayprojects.com.

Further details are available in Gallery Information.