Click here for the exhibition's Gallery Notes.

Artist collective the 181 (Brandon Boan, Abby Donovan, Tom Hughes, Jason Rhodes) will activate a series of circumstantial compositions considering time-based obstruction, including: the ancient Mud Lake Canal, Reserve-Capacity wave maneuvers, attempts to spot the endangered snail kite, shadow-telling trails from Mabel Cody, and other anomalous successions. Joined by artists Cose Cosmiche (Milan, IT), Emile Milgrim (Miami, FL), Rat Bastard (Miami, FL) and various passers-by, they take as their starting point the translation of something Franz Liszt is said to have written about a house concert by Frédéric Chopin: “…all idea of limit was lost, so that there seemed no boundary save the darkness of space.”

Check out CATCH & RELEASE - the latest CLOSER LOOK blog post featuring the adventures of the 181 leading up and during their exhibition and residency at Locust Projects.

The Florida research process of the 181 will occupy the Locust Projects Screening Room as a reference center/project base camp. There will be an evolving selection of schematics and instruments of observation, as well as literature curated by Orvokki Crosby (The Concern Newsstand, Chapel Hill, NC), available for consultation. Multiple live-to-vinyl recordings will be conducted with Rat Bastard, and information about the 2022 Heli Smack Fest may be found by visiting https://www.amps-rc.org/ . The public is invited to contact gallery staff to schedule meetings and discussions with the artists (in-person or remote) throughout the duration of the exhibition.

RELATED PROGRAMS

February 19 | 12PM: first onsite reference material session with the 181 at Locust Projects. Featuring materials chosen for the 181 by The Concern Newsstand.

March 9-10 | 4-5PM: daily onsite reference material sessions with the 181. Featuring materials chosen for the 181 by Miami artist Emile Milgrim

March 16-17 | 4-5PM: daily onsite reference material sessions with the 181. Periodically featuring conversations and planning with Miami artists Rat Bastard and Emile Milgrim

March 18-20: Moving Mountains - the 181 will be special guests at the 2022 Heli Smack Fest, sponsored by the AMPS club (Aero-Modelers of Perrine).

March 19 | 6PM: Live-to-vinyl recording session with Emile Milgrim. Featuring Rat Bastard, Ellen Ripley, Suzy, MisterE MachinE MusiC, Ale Campos, Doris Dana x Brom Lee.

March 23-26 | 4-5PM: daily onsite reference material sessions with the 181 4-5 PM. Featuring guest artists Cose Cosmiche from Milan, Italy (Helga Franza, Silvia Hell, Domenico Mancini, Luca Lampo)

March 15-25: onsite reference material live-to-vinyl sessions with Cose Cosmiche, Rat Bastard, American Vinyl Co., and the 181. Exact date time TBA

The 181 consists of: Brandon Boan (​​Old Fort, NC), Abby Donovan and Tom Hughes (Eugene, OR and Newark, DE) and Jason Rhodes (Bend, OR)

Click here to access the 181's Artstor collection of past situational compositions

ABOUT THE 181

As a collective the 181 is interested in composing situations that generate experiential spaces which expand, contract, or reassemble as information sloshes about. Imperfect approximations of the universe as a whole. Artists, a physicist/electronic engineer/musician, a mushroom forager/rockhound, and a former linotype operator—any attempts to formalize their practice they view with distress.

As far as they can tell, the 181 has been working together since 2007 when they found themselves gathered by the Pacific Ocean with a glim glam golden Q, roughly 10 yards of transparent lavender vinyl, and a broken hold on the sea’s reflection. They have gathered and appeared in places like the Arthur Craven Foundation, Milan, Italy; Stockholm Fringe Festival, Stockholm, Sweden; SPACE Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; an alley in Eugene, OR; the ICA Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA; transmissions beamed from Maine to São Paulo, Brazil; the National Centre for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia; the Slingshot Festival of Music, Electronic Arts, and Technology, Athens, GA; Live Performers Meeting, Rome, Italy; Unsmoke Systems Art Space, Braddock, PA; Herrick Cave in Lake County, OR; High Desert Test Sites HQ at the Sky Village Swap Meet, Yucca Valley, CA; and most recently a parade of sorts with Mission Street Arts, Jemez Springs, NM.

Currently the collective is engaged in realizing reST stOP, an ongoing non-linear series of situations composed at rest stops across the continental United States.