works sited
"A Partial Iteration of the World/A Partial Iteration of a Sequence."
Brian Kennon
November 23rd, 2009 - January 8th, 2009
For the fourth installment of the ongoing Works Sited series, Los Angeles artist Brian Kennon presents a display in collaboration with LAPL cataloguer, Judith Strawser. Mining the Internet’s vast collection of digital imagery, Kennon compiles a diverse group of images ranging from the abstract to the representational. Adopting the rigid classification methods of the 16th edition of the Dewey Decimal system (the current standard employed by the LAPL) he has asked Strawser to treat each image as she might treat a book and assign an ‘appropriate’ Dewey decimal number in accordance with its subject. Once printed, the placement of each image within the case is determined by its numerical position within this system.
Kennon’s body of work usually takes form in the more accessible media of books, prints and other ephemeral editions. Each piece is often the result of a very personal process involving the compilation and re-presentation of cultural imagery. In this way Kennon’s artistic practice resembles that of the library’s, which also focuses on the collection, organization, and circulation of books. In this unique collaboration Kennon forgoes more subjective organizational methods and experiments with the library’s ‘official’ hierarchical system of classifying knowledge.
An index of Dewey numbers and subject areas for each image follows.
Brian Kennon was born in 1972 and lives and works in Los Angeles. He has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, White Columns, New York; Daniel Hug Gallery, Los Angeles; Institute for Contemporary art, Philidelphia, Museum of Modern Art, Luxembourg; KW, Berlin. He is also founder and publisher of 2nd Cannons Publications, a Los Angeles-based independent press that since 2005 has published 20 artist books.
To accompany the display, the artist has provided a bibliography of titles that have influenced his artistic practice.
Bader, Darren. James Earl Scones. Los Angeles: David Kordansky; New York: Rivington Arms, 2005. Print.
Fietzek, Gerti & Gregor Stemmrich. Having Been Said: Writings & Interviews of Lawrence Weiner 1968-2003. NewYork: Hatje Cantz, 2004. Print.
Kelley, Mike. Why I Got into Art: Vaseline Muses.New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 1992. Print.
Prina, Stephen. Monochrome Painting.Chicago: Renaissance Society, 1998. Print.
Ruscha, Edward, Patrick Blackwell & Mason Williams. ROYAL ROAD TEST.Los Angeles: M. Williams and E. Ruscha, 1967. Print.
