Co-presented by the Neuberger Museum of Art and free103point9. Curated by Jacqueline Shilkoff (Neuberger Museum) and Galen Joseph-Hunter, Tianna Kennedy, Tom Roe (free103point9)

Curators’ Statements

Has humankind’s irresponsible production and consumption of energy and resources reached its peak? While regulatory agencies scramble to meet and control the demands of a wireless-obsessed market, a burgeoning urgency about the need to be ecologically responsible has emerged. Off The Grid presents work by thirteen artists examining and reacting to these currents. Works on view propose alternate territories. They repurpose, reuse, and recast communication devices, consumer byproducts, and environmental data. Our culture has long relied on creative practice to invent, innovate, and inspire. Here, the participating artists do so with works that inform, alarm, and entertain.
– Galen Joseph-Hunter

Most of us live, work, and play on the grid. The artists in Off The Grid do not present utopian solutions to complex problems (unsustainability, overconsumption, waste, alienation), but rather invite us all to reinvent, reimagine, and subvert our daily practices through accessible work completed on a human scale. I've enjoyed my conversations with the artists in this exhibition and have been reminded that cultural gridlock is best addressed not with sweeping gestures and apocalyptic arguments, but by working within, around, and perhaps a little outside expectations of art and engagement.
-Tianna Kennedy

The grid is a shifting network of power, distributing social, ecological and intellectual resources. Individuals have agency to engage or withdraw, privatize or empower, collude or disclose. By reevaluating what resources exist and how they are allocated, we redefine our collective identity and personal ideology. It is hopeful that art as activism, as intervention, can produce awareness and change.
-Jacqueline Shilkoff

Checklist of exhibited works
(Please select an artist or work title from the menu to the right for additional information.)

Matt Bua
World Grid – Square World, 2008
ink, collage, paint, pencil on paper
39 x 63 1/2 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Derek Eller Gallery, New York

Benjamin Cohen, Dylan J. Gauthier, and Stephan von Muehlen
Mare Liberum, 2008
blueprint, distributed broadsheet, boat
broadsheet: 24 x 36 inches, boat: 12 feet
Courtesy of the artists

EcoArtTech: Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint
Environmental Risk Assessment Rover - AT, 2008
solar panels, recycled shipping pallets, industrial garden wagon, video projector, MAC-mini computer, GPS, WiFi, found built and natural surfaces
Courtesy of the artists

eteam International Airport Montello, 2007-08
three-channel projection, map, figures, photographs
Courtesy of the artists

Max Goldfarb
Ambulant Transceivers, 2008
vintage first-aid kits made into two-way radios
Courtesy of the artist

Louis Hock
Nightscope Series, 1985-2003
digital pigment prints
17 x 24 inches each
Courtesy of the artist

Louis Hock
Feral, 2004
two-channel video installation
sound: Louis Hock and Peter Otto
Courtesy of the artist

Nina Katchadourian
Quit Using Us, 2002
c-print mounted on aluminum
18 x 96 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Sara Meltzer Gallery

Nina Katchadourian
Ant Static, 2003
video loop with sound
Courtesy of the artist and Sara Meltzer Gallery

Kristin Lucas
More Melting, 2008
wax, wick, fire
Courtesy of the artist

Joe McKay
Hi Hat Phone, 2007
cell phone, high hat stand, wood, speakers
Courtesy of the artist

Trevor Paglen
Workers / Las Vegas, NV / Distance – 1 mile, 2006
from the series Limit Telephotography
video
Courtesy of the artist and Bellwether Gallery, New York

Trevor Paglen
Chemical and Biological Weapons Proving Ground / Dugway, UT / Distance – 42 miles / 10:51 a.m., 2005
from the series Limit Telephotography
C-print, 3 from an edition of 5
50 x 50 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Bellwether Gallery, New York

Trevor Paglen
Unidentified Light Source / Cactus Flats, NV / Distance – 17 miles / 9:45 p.m., 2007
from the series Limit Telephotography
C-print, 1 from an edition of 5
30 x 36 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Bellwether Gallery, New York

Temporary Services
Personal Plastic, 2007
photocopied and offset publications, mounted photographs, banners made from plastic bags, unwanted plastic bags
Courtesy of the artists

Seth Weiner
Cryptographic Payphone, 2008
interactive payphone, chaotic motion system
63 x 15 x 10 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Bart Bridger Woodstrup
Gathering Lore, 2008
computer, custom video software, electronic sensors, weather
Courtesy of the artist