New Site Work - Jason Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick presented a body of work that examined the relationship between sculpture and manual labour. The exhibition began with a two-part performative action wherein Fitzpatrick moved by hand a ton of sand from outside of the building, up a flight of stairs and into the gallery space. All of the sand was present in the gallery for the opening reception, then for the second part of the action the artist moved the sand back onto the street location. The artist worked six hours a day, preparing and eating his meals in the gallery. At the conclusion of the performance the gallery retained traces of the action that included video documentation. Fitzpatrick’s interests lie in decentralizing the object in order to extend the experience of sculpture beyond the pictorial, into the realm of the temporal. In this process-based intervention Fitzpatrick utilized site dynamics and materials such as sand, beeswax and canvas to expose the process of building within the Gallery framework.