Abstract

1. When did the rhetoric and curatorial discourse surrounding art and art making eclipse the actual art? When did the glossy pages of a monogram edition substitute the viewerπs experience of the work? When did the constructed drama of åthe artistπ excuse unsatisfactory, dysfunctional work? When did complacent, unsuccessful work become the norm only because it easily illustrates a third partyπs statement? When did the mass-media frenzy of alternative-culture hucksters replace critical thought, imaginative engagement and constructive social critique of contemporary culture?

2. When did a Myth of Art arise only to sink into a disconnected, disenfranchised state: as fast-food fuel for the self-satisfied masses rather than the blood of the avant-garde? How can a smokescreen of urbane gossip or tabloid/industry magazines decide the fate of the poet, painter or performer? When did state or private funding and ideologies ever dictate the inner voice of the artist? When did the sensationalism surrounding art in the media substitute valuable considered work?

Incineration Salon seeks to act as value-rich, conceptual ballast to the juggernaut of the art ship lost at sea.

In the transcendental tradition of the psychological woodland retreat, a private exhibition of contemporary art will be organized in the Eastern Mountains of Pennsylvania. A disused barn (originally from collector Joseph Hirshhornπs Estate c.1935) on the property of The French Manor, Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania will serve as the site for the First Annual Incineration Salon: a temporary exhibition of contemporary art from both Europe, America and Asia. The exhibit will take place just following the Frieze Art Fair 2004 in London, specifically to counteract the trade show atmosphere in the urban commercial art capital with a core conceptual art-centric initiative.

Participating artists are invited by personal invitation only, and if so motivated, may personally invite their close associates who they feel will also be interested. There will be no published list of participating artists, no available images or documentation of the show until the event is complete. Furthermore, there will be no press release or visiting arts media.

Incineration Salon further carries itπs namesake. To finalize the ubiquitous sense of loss, all works will be burned upon the completion of the exhibition. Evoking a fascist book-burning, degenerate art exhibit or right-wing record smashing the burning will value the works by devaluing them, as was recently the case in the MOMART Art Storage fire in London. The actual storage fire only fueled the sensational media rhetoric surrounding the works in the form of grotesque, tabloid scored åcriticismπ. The revaluing of art through senseless destruction reveals the illogic of the art market mythology. Additionally, the burning of illogics this time of year (Halloween, All Saints Day) continues a pagan tradition of burning and bonfires used to ward off evil spirits. The Incineration Salon event completes a full circle in its purpose in reuniting art with its spiritual illogic and truth mythology.

The Curators

Jennifer Lee and Terry Young have worked together extensively since they met as teenagers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1991. Identifying themselves as artists from a young age, both have exhibited, traveled and studied extensively in both Europe and America, sharing experiences as they come. Recently, Terry has lived and worked for over a year in London and Jennifer has spent two years in a secluded, woodland retreat in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Their separate and contrasting urban / country experiences of art making and art discourse in their diverse localities - for the first time away from their Pittsburgh base - have inspired this show. In 1995 Jennifer and Terry first exhibited together at The Art Loft in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The two will again exhibit together in January of 2005 at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in a collaborative effort entitled Paperback Writer.