Exhibition

When I Am Empty Please Dispose of Me Properly

25 Jan 2023 – 30 Apr 2023

Regular hours

Wednesday
11:00 – 18:00
Thursday
11:00 – 18:00
Friday
11:00 – 18:00
Saturday
11:00 – 18:00
Sunday
11:00 – 18:00

Free admission

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BRIC

New York
New York, United States

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When I Am Empty is a group exhibition featuring the work of seven artists who explore the dominant myths of the American dream that govern and shape our personal narratives.

About

When I Am Empty is a group exhibition featuring the work of seven artists – Ayanna Dozier, Ilana Harris-Babou, Meena Hasan, Lucia Hierro, Catherine Opie, Chuck Ramirez, and Pacifico Silano – that explore the myths of the American dream that govern and shape our personal narratives. The title of the exhibition comes from a prompt from the manufacturer on a Whatacup beverage container. Enlarged to bodily proportions by the late photographer Chuck Ramirez, the empty cup and phrase take on a new meaning, drawing attention to the spent, drained, state of Americans, physically and mentally. The message also communicates the inherent disposability of cheap, mass-produced goods and the larger structures and systems that belie economic mobility and how people are valued in our society. 

The question of proper disposal elicited by the fast food cup hints at a larger overarching impulse for these artists with their work: what remains of pleasure and desire when something is emptied out? Can we see this moment of emptiness as also a site or place of potential? Drawing on Pop art and advertising aesthetics, the exhibition examines consumption through both its allure and contradiction, playing with ideas of mimicry, duplication, and violence. As Vince Aletti notes with Pacifico Silano’s photography, it is “intensely pleasurable, yet haunted by pleasure’s limits.” 

When I Am Empty Please Dispose of Me Properly is curated by BRIC Curator Jenny Gerow with support from Artist Tahir Carl Karmali and Curatorial Intern Augusta Weiss.

CuratorsToggle

Jenny Gerow

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Ayanna Dozier

Pacifico Silano

Chuck Ramirez

Catherine Opie

Lucia Hierro

Meena Hasan

Ilana Harris-Babou

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