"Standard Operating Procedures" Curated by Piper Marshall @ Blum & Poe

Alan Uglow, Portrait of a Standard-Blue, 2000,
Screenprint on canvas, 84 1/4 x 72 x 6 inches installed

Sean Paul, Arrangement 15, Front/Top/Bottom/Right/Left/Back/Front-Right/Top2, 2012
Oil and acrylic on extra fine linen, 40 x 60 x 1 1/8 inches

Yngve Holen, Parasagittal Brain, 2012,
Left half of water cut garden hose with spray nozzle, left contact lense,
4 x 293 1/2 x 2 inches
62 3/4 x 293 1/2 x 2 inches installed

Parasagittal Brain (alternate installation view)

Parasagittal Brain (detail), 2012,
Right half of water cut garden hose with multi purpose spray gun, right contact lense,
7 1/2 x 293 x 2 inches
63 1/2 x 293 x 2 inches installed

Parasagittal Brain (detail), 2012,
Left half of water cut garden hose with spray nozzle, left contact lense,
4 x 293 1/2 x 2 inches
63 1/2 x 293 x 2 inches installed

Parasagittal Brain (right nozzle detail)

Parasagittal Brain (left detail)

Parasagittal Brain (detail)

Parasagittal Brain (detail)

Parasagittal Brain (detail)

Helen Marten, Dust and Piranhas, 2011,
Animations video, sound
Format variable; TRT: 25 minutes 25 seconds

Aside from the "standard" disclaimer about over-crowded group shows, perhaps especially of the summer variety, there were a few artworks in this show worth considering discretely despite the difficulties in viewing them as such.  Regarding such challenges in particular, Sean Paul's paintings with a speaker from another piece inserted in between the work and the slightness of Yngve Holen's sculptural installation---muddled by other works in the room---were not served well by such dense installations, unless, of course, we were to consider the show as such and assumer a larger narrative where "standard operating procedures" equals chaos. I certainly hope not; I wouldn't think so.  We've seen enough attempts at "standardizing" in this region as of late.  That said, the images of the four artist's I include here represent what I think are nice moments and positions within viewing them.  Questions about presentation and re-presentation, systematic actions, bodily currents, and reflexivity all make for what I would propose could be "standard" (read: perpetual) human concerns for less uniform purposes in another show, just these four.