#dikeoucollection

A quick snapshot of what Dikeou Collection artists have been up to over the past month, and what to look forward to next month. 

Devon Dikeou, “Donation” (detail), 2009 Ongoing

Devon Dikeou “Mid-Career Smear” in Denver, CO celebrated the fall equinox with the relaunch of the Dikeou Literary Series at Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax

Ester Partegàs, “Codependence,” 2019, cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast Maché, acrylic and enamel paint, sealer, steel, plywood, 61 x 49 x 49 inches Courtesy of the artist and Foxy Production, NY.

Ester Partegàs and Claire Watson’s exhibition Guardian is on view at Essex Flowers in Chinatown through October 2.

Anicka Yi, “Biologizing The Machine (tentacular trouble),” 2019. Photo: Renato Ghiazza

Anicka Yi will debut her most ambitious project to date at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on October 12.

Sarah Staton, “Alphonso,” 2021, wood-fired brick and bespoke hand paintings

Sarah Staton unveiled “Alphonso,” a public art installation in Newton Leys on September 19. Her SupaStore Pressure Drop traveling exhibition is currently on view at Cylinder Gallery in Seoul, South Korea.

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber, “Library,” 2021

Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber of the Royal Art Lodge recently published Library, a book of collaborative paintings and illustrations of imaginary books and their titles.

Marcel Dzama, NYC Transit Bedford Avenue Station. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA Arts & Design/ Kris Graves

Devon Dikeou, “Donation,” 2009 Ongoing

Located in the former Jerry’s Record Exchange storefront, Dikeou Pop-Up: Colfax is an extension of The Dikeou Collection and offers an expanded look at Devon Dikeou “Mid-Career Smear” curated by Cortney Lane Stell. A reception was held at this location on September 22 to commemorate the fall equinox and welcome back our beloved Dikeou Literary Series. 

Some of Devon Dikeou’s earliest work from her career, as well as brand new pieces exhibited for the first time, are currently on view at the Dikeou pop-up. Dikeou’s outdoor installation, “Donation,” was the focal point of the event, as it receives a new arrangement of fresh flowers four times a year on the seasonal equinoxes and solstices. This massive architectural niche replicates those found within the Grand Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which receives new flowers on a weekly basis in a perpetual donation courtesy of benefactor Lila Acheson Wallace. As a member of the press, Dikeou would be privy to the Monday press previews at the museum, and witness the changing of the flowers, with last week’s arrangements tossed on the floor piece by piece. 

Lizzi Bougatsos, “Self-Portrait,” 2012

This interplay of what is temporary and what is permanent is reflected in another work in the Dikeou Collection by artist Lizzi Bougatsos, whose “Self-Portrait” ice sculpture is now part of the seasonal equinox/solstice cycle present within “Mid-Career Smear,” and was also on view as a special edition for the occasion. With a gorgeously opulent floral display fresh from the day, “Donation” provided the perfect setting for one of the first Dikeou Collection public gatherings in over a year.

Equinox Bleu

Organized by writer, teacher, and editor Mairead Case, the Dikeou Literary Series is the collection’s longest running program (over a decade!). The readers for the evening included Ivan Levitt, a sophomore at George Washington High School in Denver, André O. Hoilette who was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize, Common Name Farm co-founder Phil Cordelli, and 2019 Fence Modern Poet winner Tess Brown-Lavoie. Reading equinox-themed works as the sun went down and the construction lights blared, the feelings of togetherness, openness, and sharing we’ve all longed for during these long months was fully achieved.

In the fall of 2011 Brooklyn-based artist Nils Folke Anderson installed one of his mammoth sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and two at the former Dikeou Pop-Up Space, each Untitled yet identified by the street names of their locations (California and Bannock, respectively). The sculptures have lives of their own as, by their very nature, they shift and squeak and shed little foam balls, minutely changing form over time. Consisting of 9 large interlocking squares of Styrofoam, they reflect the artist’s interest in reciprocal linkage, an internet term that represents an agreement between two webmasters to provide links to one another’s websites. Reciprocal linkage also carries symbolic meaning about balance, change, and reciprocity. While interpreting this work through a lens that is “the year 2020,” the philosophy embedded in Nils’ sculptures rings clear during this unhinged time in history.

Video by Leanne Goebel for Adobe Airstream

Each of the squares that make up Nils’ sculptures measure about 9 feet long on each side. The squares are connected in a chain link fashion and start off in a geometrically pleasing nested pattern. When ready to install, Nils moves and manipulates the squares by standing them up and rotating them around, allowing other pieces to fall and turn on their own. The configuration is constantly in flux and there is no predetermined arrangement – the artist’s decision to stop comes when he feels “the elements make an interdependent stasis,” where it can stand on its own and satisfy its relationship with the space. There is no predicting how long the sculpture will be able to support itself. Eventually it starts to slip, making shrill sounds as the foam rubs against itself and shed little pieces on the floor.

In sculpture, certain parts need to lower their profile to prop up others so that the unit as a whole can achieve stability. In life, those with privilege, platforms, and strength need to learn how to use those benefits to support others for the sake of overall balance and equality. As our world struggles dramatically in health, human rights, politics, education, climate change, and economics, we need to learn to find balance through sacrifice. We also must accept that balance is not permanent, and when one area starts to fall we must readjust our priorities and prior configurations in order to support a new composition. Nils’ sculptures at The Dikeou Collection and Dikeou Pop-Up Space have not remained in the same positions he left them. People nudge the edges as they walk by, kids have crawled through like jungle gyms. An employee insisted the installations at the pop-up moved several feet across the room on their own. In the many forms the sculptures have taken, they always achieve harmony through change.