FOR 5/23

YANCEY RICHARDSON KAHN/SELESNICK PHOTOGRAPHS PAINTINGS OBJECTS 

ak/gs set 5/14 #739722

NEW YORK CITY — The Yancey Richardson Gallery announces “Eisbergfriestadt,” an exhibition of new photographs, paintings and objects by the collaborative team Kahn/Selesnick, on view to July 3. The works explore the limits of documentary truth and historical verity.

In their third show with the gallery, the artists chronicle the creation and dissolution of an imaginary utopian principality, “Eisbergfriestadt (Iceberg Free State).” Inspired by a speculative “actual incident” occurring in 1923 during the German Weimar Republic, when a mammoth iceberg runs aground in the Baltic port of Lubeck, “Eisbergfriestadt” explores the relationship between the economy and the environment in a climate of hyperinflation and global warming.

In their signature style, Kahn/Selesnick intertwine fact and fiction within a revisionist history where elaborately staged narrative tableaux and invented cultural artifacts comprise the empirical evidence of past events. Multiple camera shots of the artists as different characters are taken in real locations and are seamlessly montaged to create photographic panoramas. Kahn/Selesnick’s paintings on paper of oversized banknotes are inspired by the utopian designs of the graphic artist and bank note designer Wenzel Hablik.

In addition to photographs and works on paper, the exhibition will include “memorabilia” from the failed city-state of Eisbergfriestadt, such as a deck of water colored souvenir playing cards and invitations to the “Eisberg Ball” of 1923; clothing made from Notgeld, an emergency currency printed on a variety of materials to replace coins in inflationary times; and, a peddler’s cart piled high with real and forged banknotes of incredible denominations.

The artists Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick have collaborated for more than 20 years on projects, including “Scotlandfuturebog,” 2000; “City of Salt,” 2001; and “Apollo Prophesies,” 2004, all published in subsequent books by Aperture Press.

The work of Kahn/Selesnick is held in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Addison Gallery of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fogg Museum of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery.

In 2006, they were the recipients of a NASA commission to create work about Mars, which was subsequently exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

The gallery is at 535 West 22nd Street. For information, www.yanceyrichardson.com or 646-230-9610.