June 3 - June 25, 2005
Opening Party: Friday, June 3, 2005, 6 PM until late
45 John Street (at Nassau)
Manhattan

Come join us at a party organized by the media and theater group 3-Legged Dog, in its celebration of moving into a new (temporary) venue in Lower Manhattan after losing its space on September 11, 2001. The opening night will feature works by 3-Legged Dog and its founder Kevin Cunningham, The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (L.E.M.U.R. Lab), Ars Subterranea, and special musical and variety guests.

Ars Subterranea's exhibition is inspired by the artistic revitalization of post-9/11 lower Manhattan. Working from a wounded urban landscape, artists and institutions struggling to reclaim lower Manhattan have been forced to incorporate detritus and devastation, transforming raw spaces into new breeding grounds for artistic expression. It is in this particular process of recreation from destruction that Ars Subterranea's collection finds a metaphorical starting point.

In "Spontaneous Generation," Ars Subterranea interprets the various forms of life, energy and magic that might coalesce from urban detritus. Spontaneous generation is the archaic scientific theory that living organisms could arise spontaneously from decaying matter, like flies from putrefying food, or mice from rotting hay. Espoused by Aristotle and St. Augustine, the idea was widely believed to be true until Louis Pasteur's bacterial experiments disproved it in the 19th century.

Now Ars Subterranea playfully raises the question of what sort of odd life forms could spring from the decay of urban ruins and what new inhabitants and transformations might await decrepit spaces.

Artists and works include:

• Aaron Benoy: Ruins in ASCII (installation)
• Bryan Papciak and Jeff Sias: Met State and clips from American Ruins (video projections)
• Suzy Poling: Wonderland of Decay (photos)
• Christos Pathiakis: City Hall Station (photos on copper plates)
• Brandon Merkel: Two Legs (photos)
• Christopher Beauchamp: Photos
• Esther Regelson: Photos
• Hiroyuki Tsuzuki: Photos
• Julia Solis: Hospital Beds Dream of Their Former Occupants (mixed media)
• Works by Miru Kim and Bryan Papciak
  

Lighting Design: Sarah Landau
Production Associates: Angeline Jacobs and Sean Collins

3-Legged Dog at 45 John Street is hosted by Collegiate Church Corporation and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing-Space program. Support is provided by Con Edison, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, New York Community Trust, NYC Council Speaker Gifford Miller and NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Space generously donated by Collegiate Church Corporation.

Photo from the Exhibition by Suzy Poling