Exhibition: I should be doing something else right now

Vivienne Griffin I should be doing something else right now featuring Jenny Carson, Kristen Jensen and Cian McConn

Bureau at Grand Army Collective 184 Sterling Place, Brooklyn NY September 23 - October 28 2017

Listen to Vivienne's Speaking in Tongues on Wave Farm's Transmission Arts Archive

A white table with black legs stands on a concrete floor with a white wall and two windows in the background. On top of the table are several stacks of round alabaster forms. One of the stacks has an alabaster hand on top. There is a laptop open with an image of a burning candle flame. To the left is a glowing iPad screen. On the floor is a plastic bag with a paper bag inside of it.

Bureau is pleased announce an exhibition with Vivienne Griffin as part of the inaugural suite of shows at Grand Army Collective. Griffin’s third exhibition with Bureau I should be doing something else right now will feature new work in multiple media. Alabaster, plaster and clay sculptures, ink drawings, textile and garment pieces mingle with ambient sound, light and screen-based images. Her hybrid space – between meeting room, office and studio – houses collaborations with Jenny Carson, Kristen Jensen and Cian McConn.

There is a desperation in the pathological inward focusing of self-help movements, motivational speakers and life coaches. Terms (that I love to hate and love to love) like ‘mesearch’, ‘expectation hangover’ and ‘if it’s not a hell yes it’s a no!’, illustrate the sense of entitlement that is as omnipresent as the disappointment from not having ‘a life beyond your wildest dreams’. Ironically much of this stems from a bastardisation of ancient meditation practices the aim of which is ultimately ‘to see things as they really are’. The works brought into this space on one hand parody the superficiality of self-obsession through self-reflection but also look towards it as a solution. –Vivienne Griffin

Griffin’s installations read like psychic spaces, inside a mind in limbo. This room features the smartphone glow of translucent alabaster, a punk rendition of a self-help podcast and candles flickering from digital, battery-powered and live flames. Unique sweatshirts-cum-straight jackets hang alongside pairs of identical drawings of ‘before and after’ beauty experiments, challenging the expectation of novelty and originality. Griffin has a complicated position to her subject matter: her nuanced nihilism both employs and criticizes the contemporary incarnations of “nothingness” taken from meditation and spiritual practices.

 

Vivienne Griffin (b. 1975, Dublin, lives and works in London, UK) received an MFA from Hunter College, supported by a Fulbright grant, and received her BFA at Crawford College, Cork, Ireland. She is currently pursuing her PhD from the Royal College of Art, London. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: I As In Us, Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania; She Said, Bureau, New York, 2015; Like Nature But Not, Four to Seven, Riga, Latvia, 2014; The Nostalgia of an Object and the Pain of Glass, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2014; and The Me Song For Now Here, Bureau, New York, 2013. International group exhibitions include: Daybreak, School of Fine Art Research Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London, UK; Artists’ Voices, Centre d’édition contemporaine, Geneva, 2015; Pangrammar, P!, New York, 2015; DAY MOON, Halsey Mckay Gallery, East Hampton, New York, 2015. She will have an upcoming residency in 2018 at HereNow, Space Studios, London. Her work appears in the public collection of the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland.

In a gallery space, a white table with black legs stands on a concrete floor with a white wall and two windows in the background. On top of the table are several stacks of round alabaster forms. One of the stacks has an alabaster hand on top. There is a laptop open in the middle of the table. To the left is a iPad. On the floor is a plastic bag with a paper bag inside of it. In the back ground are groups of black and white drawings hung directly to the wall. Three drawings read "Insert image here." Other drawings depict two skulls. Another drawing reads "I'm doing fucking great, thanks for asking. To the right is a small desk with multiple blue and purple containers. Hung to the right wall is black-gray garment.
In a gallery space, groups of black and white drawings hung directly to the wall. Three drawings read "Insert image here." Other drawings depict two skulls. Another drawing reads "I'm doing fucking great, thanks for asking.
Speaking In Tongues, 2017, Sound, speakers, mixer and iPod, 20:51 minutes, looped

Speaking In Tongues, 2017, Sound, speakers, mixer and iPod, 20:51 minutes, looped

In a gallery space, a group of black and white drawings hung directly to the wall. Three drawings read "Insert image here." Other drawings depict two skulls. Another drawing reads "I'm doing fucking great, thanks for asking. On the left, a sound system rests on the floor plugged in to an outlet.

In a gallery space, a group of black and white drawings hung directly to the wall. Three drawings read "Insert image here." Other drawings depict two skulls. Another drawing reads "I'm doing fucking great, thanks for asking. On the left, a sound system rests on the floor plugged in to an outlet.

Untitled (Shrine of Our Times), 2017, CNC-milled alabaster, plaster and alabaster, 11 ¼ × 6 ½ × 12 ¾ inches

Untitled (Shrine of Our Times), 2017, CNC-milled alabaster, plaster and alabaster, 11 ¼ × 6 ½ × 12 ¾ inches

Untitled (Shrine of Our Times), 2017, CNC-milled alabaster, plaster and alabaster, 10 × 5 ½ × 8 inches

Untitled (Shrine of Our Times), 2017, CNC-milled alabaster, plaster and alabaster, 10 × 5 ½ × 8 inches

Installation shot
Installation shot
Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size medium

Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size medium

Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size small

Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size small

Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size large

Vivienne Griffin & Cian McConn, PA/NYC, 2017, Dye, bleach, heat-pressed black foil, and denim on cotton sweatshirt, Size large

Installation shot
Vivienne Griffin & Kristen Jensen, Untitled, 2017, Wood fired porcelain with shino glazes on alabaster with watercolor

Vivienne Griffin & Kristen Jensen, Untitled, 2017, Wood fired porcelain with shino glazes on alabaster with watercolor