Ace Artist in Residence Exhibition | What is Left to Weave by Richard Kennedy

What is Left to Weave By Richard Kennedy
Presented in partnership with Performance Space New York
For Ace Artist in Residence

Exhibition on view: February 1 – April 25 | Opening Reception: February 1st – 7 to 9pm

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On a functionless playground, where do we find courage to play?  

Kennedy’s residency at Ace Hotel New York marks their return to New York City after a four year European hiatus, a time dedicated to active reminiscing.

Using memorabilia preserved in their Brooklyn storage unit, Kennedy designs a space inviting play but preventing fun. The contradictory incentive prompts viewers to imagine new ways of thinking through failures and build a deeper and sustainable conception of success.

By repurposing set pieces from their operetta at Performance Space New York (“Hybrid Peasant”) and using videos from high school recitals paired with more recent performances — Kennedy confronts waste, creative error, and the ability to tear one thought to shreds. Weaving different gestures and moments into a tapestry, Kennedy gives a new form to continued effort and truth and in doing so, confronts the cycles of creative life to craft a living collage of now and then.

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About

Richard Kennedy’s multidisciplinary practice is interested in relationships and navigating sexuality as it occurs at the intersection of class, race and gender. Considering opera through a language of African American experience — drawing on the oral histories told through spirituals and chain gang songs — Kennedy disrupts the tradition of Western theater in order to generate new participatory modes of viewership. Through creating costumes and set design for opera, Kennedy was drawn to painting, sculpture and video, drawing on a process of layering, obfuscation and temporality (slowness) that contradicts their practice in live performance. @mrrichardkennedy

Over the last 40 years, Manhattan-based Performance Space New York has been propelling cultural, theoretical and political discourse forward. Futurity and world-building connect the interdisciplinary works they present — works that dissolve the borders of performance art, dance, theater, music, visual art, poetry and prose, ritual, nightlife, food, film and technology, shattering artistic and social norms alike. www.performancespacenewyork.org

Ace Hotel’s Artist in Residence program is the embodiment of our deep conviction that artists deliver us a critical lens through which to understand the world and ourselves. On a quarterly basis, and curated in partnership with creative collectives and art institutions that inspire us, we invite artists across the globe to turn one of our hotel rooms into their studio for a month. Given time and space to create, the artist’s resultant body of work is then exhibited or showcased at Ace and shared with the public. https://acehotel.com/artist-in-residence/