A Kiss For Luck

A Kiss For Luck
by James Leonard

chashama 266
266 West 37th Street
New York, NY
(between 7th and 8th Ave)

July 24 - August 11, 2013

On view 24 hours a day.
Artist will perform 10am-6pm

James Leonard is man adrift. This summer, the Brooklyn artist will present “A Kiss For Luck,” a slowmoving performance with its pylons sunk deep in the seabed of collective cultural anxiety.

Unmoored from the heavy cynicism endemic to his generation, Leonard’s work is both displaced in time and a displacement of time. “A Kiss For Luck” channels the rigorous discipline-object of a thorough contemporary performance work into a sly poetics of erosion all his own. Simultaneously mournful and transcendent, Leonard’s inevitable, intimate annihilation of a wooden boat, taking place at the height of summer sweltering season, serves both as a long quiet moment of collective solitude and the fevered zenith of a clarion call. Possessing an earnestness rare and a simplicity exquisite, “A Kiss For Luck” delivers a heraldic gesture for a new age on a damaged planet.

Over the three week duration, James and his boat will develop a mutually destructive relationship. The artist will sit in his project every day, diligently carving away at it until it is no more than a sea of shavings. He will transform, and thus be transformed. The street level space, located near the interaction of 37th Street and 8th Avenue will be passed by hundreds of pedestrians and tourists each day, permitting thousands of individuals to witness Leonard labor at his metamorphosis.

Follow the project on Twitter and Tumblr!
#akissforluck

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Leonard’s prior explorations with performance have contained a similar mix of staging and politics. He produced government-quality printed “Warbond” certificates, a prescient edition of fine art prints that anticipated the dawn of crowd-funding. His contact with securities printers regarding the project led interference and a halting of the project by one Midwestern state’s Attorney General; eventually, after much legal wrangling, the certificates had to be printed overseas in England. A performance derived from the experience has enjoyed wide popularity since.

Last year, he created a large set of handmade cartonera covers for eL Paper, an underground publication distributed throughout South America. These have been shown at the New York Art Books fair at PS1 MoMA as well as other independent publishing fairs in Santiago, Chile; Basel, Switzerland; and Rome, Italy.

Currently on exhibition at Front Room Gallery in Brooklyn, New York is Leonard’s “Tear Sheet,” a serigraph on tissue paper that doubles as wrapping material for other works purchased from the exhibition. This playful bit of self-nullifying agitprop boldly admonishes customers with a “F*** YOU FOR BUYING ANYTHING” in big bold letters.

Press inquiries: contact@opensourcegallery.org

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This work is made possible through the generous support of Open Source Gallery.
Special thanks extended to Martha Wilson for her support at the project’s inception.
Photo Credit: Michael Duva