FINE, FAIR.

FINE, FAIR. 
by Courtney Tramposh 

chashama 1351 Gallery
1351 Amsterdam Avenue
(between 125th and 126th St.) 
New York, NY 

February 1  - 17, 2013

Viewing Reception:
Saturday, February 9, 6 - 8 p.m. 

Tramposh's large-scale installation blends into the surrounding local environment, incorporating appropriated signage from the neighborhood's numerous grocery chains/supermakets. Situated amongst the bright and streaming LCD screens and large-scale lighted signs saturating the avenue, the exhibition, FINE, FAIR, subtly alters otherwise familiar and mundane logos into evocative text pieces. The resulting works appear as fragmented sentences or thoughts. In the exhibition's namesake piece, FINE, FAIR, the two words create a homonym (from Fine Fare) which could then be read as an exclamation of resignation… "Fine, fair enough".

Similarly, the piece, KNOWN, is based on the pervasive C-Town logo. Through the alteration of two letters, the piece instead repeats its enigmatic, past-tense mantra. It suggests looking into the past with longing, or perhaps an attempt to remember something just outside of recall.

Simultaneously, Tramposh's video projection, Buy Something, flashes frantic abstract shapes and patterns onto the wall above the sculptures. The video's footage is of various LCD screens, and edited so that what would normally only be the signs' transitional effects are instead featured as endlessly flashing, and ultimately pointless, visual stimuli.