An Act of Mischievous Misreading (AAOMM) edit info

Meris Angioletti, John Baldessari, Mario Garcia Torres, Terence Gower, Sean Landers, Lars Laumann, Edgar Leciejewski, Zena Verda Pesta, Gaël Peltier, Erin Shirreff
Curated by Anna Gritz

April 16 – April 19, 2010
Gallery Hours: 2-6pm
Opening reception Friday, April 16, 2010 6-8pm
With a performance by Gaël Peltier and live music by Ted Buddy Jazz Ensemble

Public Event: Sunday, April 18, 5pm An Exercise in Misreading: A selection of writers and artists will present misreadings of works in the exhibition.
With live music by Wailin’ Storms

When Harold Bloom suggested in his book A Map of Misreading (1975) that any kind of reading, if strong, is always a misreading, he probably did not think of Meris Angioletti printing the pages of Edgar Allan Poe’s Auguste Dupin stories on top of each other. This exhibition expands on Bloom’s assertion and presents a selection of artworks that have taken their misreadings to an extreme, revealing the creative potential of making someone else's work one's own. Based on the concept of the trope in literature, a strategy in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning, the works in this show have plundered the canon of cultural history, using works against their original intention for the sake of giving emphasis to a new idea.

The artists in this show present a study of willful misplacements, misreadings, and misuses that as avenues of emancipation from the idea of Deutungshoheit (the sovereignty over interpretations) reinvent sources according to their own needs and interests. As a radical form of appropriation, these works blend homage and disrespect in a mischievous way. As an unruly form of history writing the works break down chronologies and trigger misunderstandings that might cause reassessments through irony, parody and humor. Through association they present themselves as a postscript to an existing artwork, opening up a new discourse in the form of a continued series of misreadings.

The exhibition will be accompanied by An Exercise in Misreading on Sunday, April 18, for which an invited selection of artists and writers will choose a work in the exhibition to expand on while ignoring its original intention or meaning. These responses will be collected in the form of a digital publication.