ANASTASIA AX: THE WORLD AS OF YESTERDAY
site-specific installation & performance in two acts
September 11 - October 24, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, September 11, 6-9pm
ACT I - September 11, 7pm / ACT II - September 12, 1-6pm

Black & White Project Space, Brooklyn, NY is excited to present the New York City premiere of the award winning performance The World As Of Yesterday by the Swedish artist Anastasia Ax, one of the most innovative installation and performance artists working today.  

In The World As Of Yesterday, Anastasia uses her body and black ink to stage a live intervention with compressed shredded paper bales.  During Act I of the performance on Friday, September 11, she will wreck solid bales of paper in an explosive action, letting the hidden stories and cultural traces in the printed matter, in this case leftovers from the local community, unfold and create new stories and meaning. As she destroys compressed, neatly packed shredded paper cubes made up of newspapers, advertisements, personal data, official documents and splatters black ink over the debris - all in front of live audience, the paper's original purposes are lost to the largest possible degree while the half-life of its social re-packaging remains intact.  

The role of ink in these activities is double-edged. It belongs to the world of drawing, the physical act of filling out white spaces, but the black ink has an element of poison and bile, melancholy and destruction as well. The raw energies connected with the splashing, the spitting out, the havoc, transform time from linear dimensions into circular moments. New thoughts and new communions take shape through the unpredictable openness of the situation.

Act I of Anastasia's performance will be accompanied by an improvised sound dialogue with C. Spencer Yeh - a multi-media artist, improviser and composer who will use a mixture of amplified sound elements to respond to and drive Ax˙s audio physical performance.

During Act II on Saturday, September 12, Anastasia will interact with debris left from her previous day performance. She will be at the gallery sampling, repurposing and transforming the relics of her perfomance into new improvised objects and spatial installations which will remain on view until October 24. The owners of these newly created works will have the possibility and the right to open them up whenever they desire, with the only request from the artist to document the transformation and send a photo back to her. In this way the documentation will be part of her personal archive and a beginning of a new project. 

At the end of her show, if the piece has not been turned into an object of qualified acquisition and ownership, the final destroying destination will be back at the recycling factory ready to take on another life and continue the cycle.

Acting as an archeologist who collects, catalogues and evaluates debris and relics in her own destructive fury, Anastasia Ax not only challenges the notion of artistic, social and cultural values but also inspects people's reactions and initiates their transformation from observers to co-formers of her pieces. The audience is invited to emphasize the experience of her artistic views by participating and altering the work by leaving marks and traces. 

The World As Of Yesterday received the 2015 Faber-Castell Award Prize and has been performed in 2015 at Neues Museum, Nuremberg, Germany, in 2014 at Skovsnogen Art Space, Denmark and Stockholm Music and Arts, in 2013 at Bomuldfabriken Kunsthall, Norway. Each of Anastasia Ax's performances is a new performance; this is essential to her practice. 

Each of Anastasia Ax's performances is a new performance; this is essential to her practice. 

Most notable other exhibitions include Pan Theon, ActionBabySplash, Moderna Museet, Malmö (2015); Exile, Kunsthalle Athena, Athens (2014), Swallowed Fear, ISCP, New York (2013); Exile, SINNE, Helsinki (2013);  Step into the current, AM art-space, Shanghai (2012). Pan Theon, Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, 2012; Bring New Life to Death, in collaboration with Marja-Leena Sillanpää, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2012; Pan Theon, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2012; Step into the current, AM art-space, Shanghai, 2012; Katarsis, in collaboration with Lars Siltberg,Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, 2012; Exile, Way out West, Göteborg, 2011; An Experimental Conference on Art and Science, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2011; Reactor, Luleå Konstmuseeum, Luleå, 2011; Trunk, Göteborgs konstmuseum, Göteborg,2010; The Kid Below, Taidihalli, Helsinki, 2010; L&A in collaboration with Lars Siltberg, Galleri Verkligheten, Umeå, 2010; 2010, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg; 2010, The Kid Below, Reykjavik Art Museum, 2010; The Kid Below, Konstakademin, Stockholm, 2010; Exile, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, 2010 and New drawings and sculptures, Natalia Goldin gallery, Stockholm, 2009. 

Anastasia Ax (b. 1979), lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden and Athens, Greece. She studied at the Royal Danish Art Academy, Copenhagen (2000-2002), School of Photography and Film, Goteborg (2001-2003), and the Royal College of Art, Stockholm (2005-2006). She is the winner of the 2015 Faber Castell International Drawing Award from the Neues Museum, Nuremberg.  In 2010, she was shortlisted for the Carnegie Art Award 2010. Her works are on display at several museums and arthalls such as; Moderna Museet, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, the Carnegie Art Award collection, Pro Artibus Foundation and Gävle Konstcentrum.

C. Spencer Yeh (b. 1975) born in Taipei, Taiwan, lives and work in Brooklyn, NY. Yeh works in and in between the realms of composition, experimental music, film, and visual arts, both as a practitioner and a curator of events and artistic collaborations. As a former student of radio/television/film at Northwestern University, Yeh seeks and probes instances in which the sonic (or vocal) and visual (or tangible) intersect in both typical and unexpected ways. Recent presentations of work include "Modern Mondays" at MoMA NYC, "The Companion" at the Liverpool Biennial, "99 Objects" at the Whitney Museum NYC, "Great Tricks From Your Future" at D-CAF in Cairo Egypt, "In Tones From Light to Dark" at Performa 13, Borderline Festival in Athens Greece, Kinomuzeum at Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw Poland, All Ears Festival in Oslo Norway, "Synth Nights" at The Kitchen NYC, LAMPO at the Renaissance Society in Chicago IL, and a Jerome Foundation Commission from Roulette Intermedium. Yeh also collaborated with Triple Canopy for their contribution to the Whitney Biennial in 2014.  He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room NYC.

The World As Of Yesterday at Black & White Project Space is supported by the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, Faber-Castell and Scholes Paper Recycling.

Images by Arnaud Falchier and Jason Boit.