ONTOLOGUE collective

Parliament of Things

February 01 – 25, 2012
Reception / Thursday, February 02, 6–8pm

ONTOLOGUE is a touring art entity specializing in exhibitions and publications. Beginning in 2010, in Portland, Oregon, with a self-titled exhibition, this show continues in the same philosophy to merge art and sociology in media both new and experimental.

At SOIL Gallery, ONTOLOGUE presents Parliament of Things. This parliament is a plateau where the objects and the humans have equal agency and autonomy. Where the representative and the represented are on equal foot and offer both real and fabricated experiences. The exhibition is a menagerie of media including window text, sound installation, catered performance, and artifacts.

Offered first is Susan Kordalewski's text in the front window. "Who am I going to become?" is a vinyl text cut in the style of the artist's handwriting. Referencing the practice of gallery signage of the current exhibition, it asks for a dialogue between audience and the gallery to resolve the artist's evolving identity.

Kentaro Ikegami's performance utilizes the gallery reception catering and Shintoist traditions. The work instructs the performer/participant to build a Shinto shrine out of sushi and chopsticks, to initiate a dialogue about the shared cultural landscape ranging from Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Internment Camps, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Uwajimaya.

Local Seattle artist Zach Rose channels the entrepreneurial culture of Seattle in his company Shapeshack. Rose investigates of the value of creation of sub markets within markets, ONTOLOGUE views his start-up, Shapeshack, as cultural commentary to the current global art market. When museums market to collectors and vice versa, what is the value of art when even the collectors are collected?

Overlaying all the work is Allison Maletz's sound installation Station. In this 41-minute sound piece, Maletz layers recordings of sounds related to international experiences of travel, resulting in a symphonic stream that speaks to the collective consciousness about transportation and recognition.

The main item on the parliament agenda is to give the audience the sense they are part of the parliament of things. Transferring the idea of the individual into the collective, the real value of space is the value of its occupants, and politico-economic systems are based upon the trust and the will of the citizens. You, the representative, are a part of the all the systems intersecting at this continual session of parliament.