A Reason for Being (2010) by Ghost of a Dream at VOLTA NY, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, Booth G12.
VOLTA NY, an invitational, boutique fair put together by critic and Fair Director Amanda Coulson, opened yesterday at its 7 West 34th Street location. It proved once again to be the perfect compliment to the ever-growing, ever-vast Armory Show. VOLTA NY’s commitment to an artist-driven, solo booth show allows artists to not only create intricate installations but interact directly with art patrons and collectors. It’s telling that the largest name on the fair’s booth signs is the artist’s name, not the galleries. Said Cynthia Valianti Corbett of The Cynthia Corbett Gallery in London, “It’s kind of like a mini museum. The collectors feel like they can come into a space, see one artist’s work, and actually get to know the artist’s practice a bit and it’s not so overwhelming, it’s not so huge.” Corbett’s booth was full-on installation, with work by the collaborative project of Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom, Ghost of a Dream. Visitors to the booth will first see a nearly 8 x 12 foot collage of romance novel covers on the exterior wall. Behind that is a temporary room with walls covered in lotto tickets, more romance novels, mirrors, next to low hanging, glittering, chandeliers. One half of Ghost of a Dream, Lauren Was, happened to be at the booth (another treat at VOLTA: most of the artists are present throughout the week) and spoke to us about the piece, this is it (2010).
LAUREN WAS: We started working with lottery tickets at first. We would collect them walking down the street and we started talking about the dreams that everyone had while they were scratching them. Mainly now our work is about dreams and hopes that people have and the materials we use are these escapist things that people use to dream. These are our first pieces with romance novels [which] we’ve been collecting from all over the north shore and through New York, driving hours to get to different peoples houses.
WHITEWALL: So they are all secondhand?
LW: Yeah, they are from thrift stores, Craiglist. This one woman in Albany had 1100 books! It was her life’s work of reading all these books.
this is it (2010) by Ghost of a Dream at VOLTA NY, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, Booth G12.
WW: Did you read any of them?
LW: Oh we read [laughs]. I dictated one out loud to Adam, I think it was called “Unicorns and Rainbows” or something pretty steamy. And the piece inside, we wanted to combine the two, the lottery tickets and the money and have it be about love and money and to have these two things that people dream about collide into one installation. So the mirrors are there to create this endless reflection of tickets and books and so that you as a viewer are actually put into the piece by stepping into the sightline of the mirror.
WW: What are some of the benefits for you as an artist to participate in this kind of fair – a smaller, focused, solo-based fair?
LW: It’s great exposure. All at once you get to see so many people. Last year we were in Basel and did SCOPE and VOLTA both and so it’s great because now we see those same people coming back, developing relationships with collectors that you wouldn’t normally meet from all over the world.
And the solo booth gives us the opportunity to make a crazy big installation and I think that’s where our work in general really speaks the most. It’s definitely my favorite fair, it has been for years because you really get a sense of what the artist is doing and trying to work for. It’s a more intimate fair, you get to walk around and meet the artists and talk to people.
All images are Courtesy of The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London. (Exhibiting VOLTA NY 4-7 March 2010 Booth G12)
