Camel Collective

Something Other Than What You Are

January 23 – March 27, 2016

Opening: January 23rd, 6-9 pm

Anthony Graves and Carla Herrera-Prats, working collaboratively as Camel Collective, premiere their multi-channel video installation Something Other Than What You Are, the first solo exhibition of this group in the United States. Camel Collective practice focuses on the problems of work, pedagogy, and collectivity through archival research processes, painting, drama and photography.

Something Other Than What You Are focuses on the figure of the lighting designer as subject and spokesperson as a means to discuss the work and precariousness that exists behind the theatrical production format, forming a microcosms of the artistic cultural apparatus. Light is an intangible entity that becomes the source of the story’s narrative, combining documentary references with fictional situations. Something Other… begins as a performance written by Camel Collective that uses the REDCAT Theater as both a fictional setting as well as the subject of its study. The theater’s technicians have the dual role of invisible actors as well as workers needed for the production of the project. The performance consists of six scenes in which an actress plays different characters: a designer, a technician and a lighting professor, who speak about their experiences in the profession relating to the fragility of freelance work, human problems associated with collaboration, and the continuous updating and obsolescence of technological theatrical equipment.

This exhibition is curated by Ruth Estévez. A publication accompanies this project with essays by Mariana Botey, Tyler Coburn, Ruth Estévez, Sohrab Mohebbi and the script of the performance written by the artists.Credits:Actress: Corey Tazmania; Director of photography: Meena Singh; Theater lighting: Tony Shayne; Producer: Chiara Giovando; Sound recording: Andrew Storrs; Gaffer: Russell Bell; 1st assistant camera: Nadia Baptista; Video editor: Rodrigo Cervantes Ornelas; Music and sound mix: Nate Harrison; Gallery lighting: Karyn Lawrence.About the artists:Anthony Graves and Carla Herrera-Prats have worked as Camel Collective since 2005. Recent exhibitions and performances include The Second World Congress of Free Artists at Casa del Lago, Mexico City (2013), Una Obra Para Dos Pinturas at the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan (2012), A Facility Based on Change at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (2011), and Howls for Bologna at Overgaden Institut for Samtidskunst (2010).  A book version of The Second World Congress of Free Artists: A Play in Three Acts was published by Aarhus Kunsthal in 2013.

Credits:

Actress: Corey Tazmania; Director of photography: Meena Singh; Theater lighting: Tony Shayne; Producer: Chiara Giovando; Sound recording: Andrew Storrs; Gaffer: Russell Bell; 1st assistant camera: Nadia Baptista; Video editor: Rodrigo Cervantes Ornelas; Music and sound mix: Nate Harrison; Gallery lighting: Karyn Lawrence.