Fruit and Other Things
A project by Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin
Commissioned by The Carnegie Museum for the 57th Carnegie International, 2018. Photos Phillip Andrew Lewis.
From 1896 to 1931 the Carnegie International selected artworks for its exhibitions from an international competition. The museum kept meticulous records, not only of all the works accepted, but of those rejected as well. Only the title, artist’s names, and the year of each work were recorded, no images exist. Over this 35 year span, 10,632 artworks were rejected from the exhibitions. For the duration of the 57th Carnegie International, each of the 10,632 rejected titles are being made into hand-lettered text paintings. Each text painting will be exhibited for a day, and then given away to visitors.
The paintings document an encyclopedic list of absence that is normally invisible to a viewer, each painted title a stand-in, inviting speculation as to what might have been.
……..
Project Team
Project Manager: Brittany Reilly
Archives: Elizabeth Tuffts-Brown
Graphic Design: Brett Yasko
Typesetting and Layout: Kate Radkoff
Painters: Alexa Beil, Victoria Cable, Katie Gablick, Abby Michalowski, Brent Nakamoto, Andrew Paul, Linda Plowman, Rebecca Polanzke, Rigel Richardson, Susan Rigotti, Isabel Smith, Jack Taylor, Linda Wallen, Marina Wei
Examples of the original archival record cards made for each artist who submitted work to the Carnegie International. A - Accepted, R - Rejected.