Wooloo's Asylum NYC

It has taken a while, but the web (which I have been sifting through regularly in search of the information you'll read here) has finally caught up.

A few weeks ago, I relayed some information about an exhibit called Asylum NYC. Remember? 10 artists locked in a gallery with access to nothing but pens and paper? My sister wanted to know who won and what they did to win. Thanks to an Artnet review, I can tell you. The review's main point was that, as far as politics and activism go, this project was a big disappointment. I however, think that politics and activism are not the best perspective to take on this exhibit. It addresses the significance of NY, the difficulty foreigners face to work there, and the power the system has to allow or deny them that chance.

Anyway, a woman from Serbia and Montenegro named Dusanka Komnenic won for doing this:


So, obviously, she has adopted the appearance of a prisoner. She made that little costume out of tape, which I think is quite creative, and I'm pretty sure that the markings on the wall are tape too. Like the exhibit itself, which examines the system under which foreign artists must operate to survive in NY, this artist's installation/performance addressed the rules the artists in this exhibit had to follow.

But wait, there wasn't just one winner. The other winning artist managed to win without doing anything. He wasn't even there. He was denied entry to the US even though he had been invited to participate in the exhibit. When it was clear he would not be able to participate, he sent all the letters and other documents that he had submitted to the government in his place. I bet the artists who actually did participate and didn't win have already burnt him in effigy.