August 6- September 10, 2011
“Response II: Culture Laboratory Collective
in collaboration with Noah Simblist “
Box 13 Artspace
Houston, TX

“I am writing this (self reflexive) sentence but it is writing you.” ~Noah Simblist (artist/critic/curator)

Exhibition format: “Response” is part of an ongoing series of exhibitions where Culture Laboratory invites an outside party to propose a theme in the form of a 12 word sentence. A word is designated for each artist in Culture Lab. The gallery will be set up to be read in a linear format following the sentence structure. Each artist will be given 4 feet of horizontal space in which to ‘consider’ their word. In this exhibit our sentence is contributed by Noah Simblist, Texas based artist, writer, curator and Assoc. Prof. at SMU, Dallas.

THEME: As a group Culture Lab will focus on themes of interpretation while highlighting ideas of diversity and individuality within a community.

Concept: The exhibit involves relational aesthetics, pinpointing the individuality of the artists and our localized attempts to remain a part of the group discussion.  Each artist is naturally unique, so the idea is to promote an artist group that does not attempt to homogenize it’s member’s but allows them a voice that contributes to the vitality of the community.

* The first attempt at this exhibition format was “Response in collaboration with Ben Lewis“ [of Art Safari, London] and was held at Richland College, Dallas in early 2011. The success of the exhibit prompted another collaborative effort to further explore the discourse and relation of object to context.

Noah Simblist is an artist, writer, curator, and associate professor at SMU in Dallas, Texas.  His work explores the relationship between politics and abstraction with an emphasis on the Palestine/Israeli conflict. Simblist has written for Artpapers, Artlies and several web publications. He has curated Abstraction/Construction at SOIL gallery in Seattle, Collecting and Collectivity at Conduit Gallery in Dallas and the 3 Propositions and a Musical Scenario in Ft Worth along with Subtext Projects.

( Curated and coordinated by Ryder Richards )

Artists word assignment: