• Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather
    Installation View, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
    November 16, 2013 – February 1, 2014
    Photo: Sara Condo

Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather

November 16, 2013—February 1, 2014


Carrie Secrist Gallery presents Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather on view from 16 November 2013 through 4 January 2014. Please join us for an opening reception on Saturday 16 November from 5-8 PM.

Carson Fisk-Vittori examines the aesthetic use-value of nature and explores the devices through which we see and attempt to manipulate our environments. In Women Weed & Weather, installations integrating photography, sculpture, and objects analyze the complex failures of anthropocene, the current geological era characterized by the significant effect of humanity on the earth’s ecosystems. Satirizing our relationships with the natural world, Fisk-Vittori’s image making presents an alternative perspective to a consumer-based economy.

Fisk-Vittori’s newest still lifes appropriate the aesthetic of stock photography, embracing advertising style and technique to create representations stripped of context and function. Represented objects operate on purely formal terms: A snake in a paper towel roll, a Windows phone as the centerpiece for floral design. Fisk-Vittori’s arrangements, intuitive yet calculated, draw our attention to surface and shape, thus rendering common things strange and new. At the same time, this photographic work accentuates the idealization of feminine beauty ubiquitous in contemporary mass media while dissecting the use of natural references in branding.

In addition, Fisk-Vittori debuts a new body of sculptural objects that represent a condensed idea of weather. Shaped from established international weather symbols used by meteorologists and cartographers, the artist’s stacked forms and playful juxtapositions evaluate weather as a commodity. Of course, the very materialization and multiplicity of these weather symbols underscores humanity’s obsession with limitless economic growth. The act of selling weather futures on the stock market, in particular, highlights our alienation from the idea of weather as a folkloric or mythical entity.

Finally, the artist’s gestural installations scrutinize the results of human-imposed alteration of ecology in the face of global climate change. Pond forms and ripple fountains consider landscape design as a societal requirement. The artist probes, ‘What does your front yard say about you?’ A perfectly manicured icon of American prosperity, the lawn is, after all, an invasive species.

Carson Fisk-Vittori (b. 1987, Austin, TX) lives and works in Oakland, CA. Her exhibition history includes the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The University of Washington, Seattle; Humble Arts, New York; Favorite Goods, Los Angeles; The Future Gallery, Berlin; Contemporary Gallery, Tel Aviv; and Titanik Gallery, Finland. In 2012, the artist was awarded a site-specific grant by 4Culture Arts, Seattle and named a “Breakout Artist” by New City Chicago. Women Weed & Weather is her first solo exhibition with Carrie Secrist Gallery.

For more information please contact Stevie Greco or Carmen Price on 312.491.0917.

Images

  • Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather
    Installation View, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
    November 16, 2013 – February 1, 2014
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Nature Window, 2013
    Archival inkjet print mounted between Aluminum and Plexiglas
    40 x 60 inches
    Edition of five and one Artist’s Proof

  • Rainstick: Rain Lilies, 2013
    Photo-wrapped ABS pipe, DIY HDPE recycled plastic, nails, garbanzo beans, black beans, and lentils
    40 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches

  • Rain, light. Thunder heard during past hour but not now., 2013
    Wood, lava rock, Japanese Cherry Blossom Body Fantasies
    32 x 45 x 3 1/2 inches

  • Women Weed & Weather, 2013
    Archival inkjet print mounted between aluminum and Plexiglas
    40 x 60 inches
    Edition of five and one Artist’s Proof

  • Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather
    Installation View, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
    November 16, 2013 – February 1, 2014
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Squiggle and tube, 2013
    Archival inkjet print mounted between aluminum and Plexiglas
    18 x 26 inches
    Edition of five and one Artist’s Proof

  • Lysol Planter, 2013
    Ivy and Lysol watering spike
    Dimensions variable

  • Rock Garden, 2013
    Rock cover, fly-byes, planter risers, false leaf, and marble
    22 x 31 x 22 inches

  • Altostratus or Nimostratus. The sun/moon can’t be seen., 2013
    Wood, marble, Lotus Blossom & Lavender Palmolive
    18 1/2 x 32 x 3 1/2 inches

  • Altostratus or Nimostratus. The sun/moon can’t be seen., 2013
    Detail
    Wood, marble, Lotus Blossom & Lavender Palmolive
    18 1/2 x 32 x 3 1/2 inches

  • Lost in the Irrigation Aisle, 2013
    Archival inkjet print, razors, shell bowl, and water wiggler
    36 x 48 inches

  • Lost in the Irrigation Aisle, 2013
    Detail
    Archival inkjet print, razors, shell bowl, and water wiggler
    36 x 48 inches

  • Pressure Trend: rising, then steady, 2013
    Wood, marble, Refreshing Aloe Purell
    31 x 30 x 3 1/2 inches

  • Rain showers, torrential., 2013
    Wood, lava rocks, Raspberry Rain Skintimate
    36 x 14 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches

  • Rainstick: Light Rain, 2013
    Photo-wrapped ABS pipe, DIY HDPE recycled plastic, nails, garbanzo beans
    40 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches

  • Glacier Mist, 2013
    Bottled water, fountain, rotating display, ivy, lava rocks, hydrospike, and other artifacts
    84 x 80 x 48 inches

    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Glacier Mist, 2013
    Detail
    Bottled water, fountain, rotating display, ivy, lava rocks, hydrospike, and other artifacts
    84 x 80 x 48 inches

    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Glacier Mist, 2013
    Detail
    Bottled water, fountain, rotating display, ivy, lava rocks, hydrospike, and other artifacts
    84 x 80 x 48 inches
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Carson Fisk-Vittori: Women Weed & Weather
    Installation View, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
    November 16, 2013 – February 1, 2014
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Plan for a pond: Organic, 2013
    Natural materials, beauty products, and other artifacts
    99 x 65 inches
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Plan for a pond: Organic, 2013
    Detail
    Natural materials, beauty products, and other artifacts
    99 x 65 inches
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Plan for a pond: Organic, 2013
    Detail
    Natural materials, beauty products, and other artifacts
    99 x 65 inches
    Photo: Sara Condo

  • Plan for a garden, 2013
    Archival inkjet print mounted between aluminum and Plexiglas
    40 x 60 inches
    Edition of five and one Artist’s Proof

  • Windshield Display, 2013
    Archival inkjet print, shampoo and conditioner, photo transfer vases
    36 x 48 inches

  • Windshield Display, 2013
    Detail
    Archival inkjet print, shampoo and conditioner, photo transfer vases
    36 x 48 inches

  • Virtual Garden, 2013
    iPad App
    Published by Uni-Press

Additional Information