Exhibition: The Mortal Apparatus — Photographs of Flowers & Cityscapes by Chris Fiore

CRS presents The Mortal Apparatus, an exhibition of photographs of fading flowers and cityscapes by Chris Fiore. A mix of color and b&w, the photographs are all clearly digitally manipulated and highlight the artificiality and intentionality of the photographic act. The images call attention to the often overlooked beauty that can be found in decaying objects, natural and man-made, suggesting how our minds look for signs of the eternal in the ephemeral and create new layers of meaning. Ultimately, these works invite us to consider how our thoughts touch and re-make everything we look upon.

The exhibition opens on September 14, 2017 and will remain on view until November 30, 2017. An Opening Reception with the artist will take place on Friday, September 22, 2017 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

In conjunction with the exhibition, two free evenings of screenings of film/video work by the artist will take place on October 13 (“Goodman” and “The Red Umbrella Diaries”) and on November 10 (world premiere of “The Ken Stones:  Miami” and A(DE)SCENT”) from 7:30 – 10 pm. Seating for these screenings is limited and available on a first come, first serve basis.

Artist’s Exhibition Statement:

From time immemorial the nature of what we value most has been defined in human terms; our families, our villages, our rulers, our religions, have defined us in ways intrinsic to our nature as people, as father, mother, sister, brother, friend, and neighbor, etc. We lived in a world of barter and local currencies defined by our communities and shared needs.

Then the industrial revolution introduced a new set of values as we had an entirely new thing to measure ourselves against: the ubiquitous machine. Mechanical things that could weave, move, and manufacture faster than any human began to shape the lives of millions of people who moved from farms and villages to the cities (massive machines themselves) in search of factory work. This shaping of our lives by technology and factory work has since enveloped the world and affects every aspect of our lives.

Willing or not, we are supplicants to the mechanical and the cybernetic. From the moment our parents sat us down in front of a screen, be it a television, tablet, or phone, automation has literally shaped our minds, our perception of reality, and in turn, what we value. We are no longer strictly human and the velocity of our technologies make us less so every day. In short, we are already cyborgs.

Artist Statement

The camera is my favorite machine. To me, the camera has transcended its nature as a mechanical device and has become something verging on a magic instrument. Capable of capturing the fleeting and the ephemeral, of freezing light and stopping time, of making the intimate public, of telling profound truths and fascinating lies, of imbuing meaning into the mundane and transforming the precious into the mechanical, the camera is a collective third eye that has shaped the perceptions of a species.

Artist Profile:

Filmmaker, writer, and artist Chris Fiore, born 1959 in Norfolk, Virginia, received his BFA from Antioch College in 1984. In the late 80’s he was one of the founders of the Zone, a artist collective occupying an abandoned warehouse at 104 South 4th St, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Fiore showed at the East Village’s KOAP gallery in the early 90’s and in 1995 directed the underground documentary Trip and Go Naked, winner of the Excellence in Sexual Theater award at Arlene’s Grocery Picture Show. He went on to direct the feature documentary Backstage for Miramax, a behind the scenes look at Jay Z’s Hard Knock Life Tour. The film had a profitable run in theaters and is still occasionally in rotation on the Showtime network 17 years after it was made. Fiore has also directed documentaries on the making of the Victoria’s Secret Christmas Catalog, the band Paramore, as well as two prime time specials for Fox Television. His most recent documentary, Goodwoman, tells the story of Debra Goodman, an activist brutally arrested for filming the NYPD. Featured in several film festivals, Goodwoman won the Grand Jury Award at the 2016 LA Film Invasion film festival. He’s currently directing a documentary and web series on artist Ken Hiratsuka.

Fiore’s first feature film script, The Utopia Virus, finished in the top ten of the 2005 Final Draft Big Break screenwriting contest. He also wrote the Wassup Obama ad, described by Salon.com as one of the most creative of the 2008 presidential campaign and winner of a Cannes Lion. He’s currently working on a series of film treatments for a Beijing based production company.

Fiore’s film work has directly influenced his art over the years, in his use of appropriated imagery, presentation of sequential images, and in the cinematically dynamic composition of his mosaic photography. Fiore is represented by the Ethan Pettit Gallery.

Websites:

chrisfiore.nyc
goodwomanmovie.com
thekenstones.com
abillionbeautifuldays.com

Art Resume

Education:

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1984.

One Person Show

1991 Space Case Gallery, P.S. 122: NYC

Guest Artist:

2017 Nobuko Tsuruta, 12 Years, Tenri Gallery, NYC

Group Shows :

2015 Spring Salon, Ethan Pettit Gallery, Brooklyn

2015 Morphopolis, Ethan Pettit Gallery, Brooklyn

2007 Sun Pictures to Megapixels, WAH Art Center, Brooklyn

2004 Projekt30 : Juried online group show

1999 triad: an observation of artist/friendship triangles, Vibrant Gallery, NYC

1999 CG ART, KOAP Gallery, NYC

1997 Trip, Gallery T.Y.K-Two, Tokyo, Japan

1997 Future in 3D, KOAP Gallery, NYC

1996 Cupid, KOAP Gallery, NYC

1995 Blood in the Heart, KOAP Gallery, NYC

1990 Possible Photography, Ward Nasse Gallery, NYC

1990 Epoche Sex Salon, Epoche Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1989 The Gridlock Exhibit, Minor Injury Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1988 CyberFunk, The Zone, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

1987 The Zone Show, The Zone, Williamsburg, Brooklyn