SOFT NETWORK
LYNN HERSHMAN LEESON
SHIGEKO KUBOTA
GWEN SMITH
SARA VANDERBEEK
STAN VANDERBEEK
LAU WAI
YELENA YEMCHUK

January 25 – March 13, 2021

Inspired to address the isolation and disembodiment of the pandemic, and to support and engage with their artistic communities, Sara VanDerBeek and Chelsea Spengemann co-founded soft network, an experimental cooperative. For their first project, soft network presents a collaborative conversation and exhibition soft network, jointly hosted by Altman Siegel in an Online Viewing Room and by Rachel Comey on her website and New York showroom.

For the exhibition, soft network, VanDerBeek and Spengemann invited the participation of a group of artists and artist foundations in their existing network: Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Gwen Smith, Sara VanDerBeek, Stan VanDerBeek Archive, Lau Wai, and Yelena Yemchuk. Contributions include streaming digital videos, prints made from paintings made from photographic portraits found online, paintings on photographs, 3D printed figures, computer prints and collage.

At the center of this presentation, Sara VanDerBeek introduces a new series entitled, Ancient Woman, in which she incorporates gestural layers of paint and makeup onto the surface of her photographs for the first time. She began photographing Roman statuary in 2012 with a residency in Rome at Fondazione Memmo, and continues to work with ancient female figures as a source of inspiration. Returning to images of a sculpture of Aphrodite from the National Archeological Museum in Naples as well as other images of the female form, VanDerBeek captures, colorizes and renders these ancient women into new composites of image and action. This act of reclamation and of reverence is meant as both a disruption and a reframing to encourage new perspectives on the past and the present.

In addition to their artworks, participants were invited to contribute text and images exploring themes of networked bodies, image networks, and re-surfacing histories. Assembled by soft network and included throughout the soft network Online Viewing Room, this combinatory conversation reflects an interest in experimenting with existing presentation platforms to encourage connectivity.

Rachel Comey, an established designer and friend of soft network who has successfully pushed against conventions in the fashion business, will host parallel platforms for soft network’s projects on her website and in her NYC store. By engaging multiple platforms, soft network aims to respond flexibly to economic challenges in the arts, creating opportunities for connectivity beyond conventional art spaces, while expanding audiences for all participants. Including multiple platforms, open forum discussion, a responsive range of items for sale and a dynamic, intergenerational group of makers are all gestures that soft network plans to continue with in future projects. 

A workshop conversation “Reclaiming Network” will be presented as part of the programming.

Conversation Participants:

Rachel Comey, Fashion Designer
Gwen Smith, Artist
Chelsea Spengemann, Director, Stan VanDerBeek Archive
Sara VanDerBeek
Yelena Yemchuk
Moderated by Claudia Altman-Siegel