review as glossary: anthony discenza @ cathArine clark gallery

 Anthony Discenza Presents A Novel: an Exhibition by Anthony Discenza
February 27–April 16, 2016
 
Catharine Clark Gallery
248 Utah Street
San Francisco, CA
94103
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday:  11-6; Thursday: 11 -7

Glossary is elated to present our newest Review as Glossary  for your pondering pleasure. We want to preface this entire entry with our slogan, “art reviews through a creative lens,” and we really mean it this time! Conceptually, everything about this show is very much a glossary: a set of indexes and terms isolated at the end of a book, or in this case—the aftermath of a process; our namesake review seemed most fitting. Enjoy!

Anthony Discenza Presents A Novel: an Exhibition by Anthony Discenza, installation view, Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco and the artist

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Glossary recently visited Anthony Discenza’s solo exhibition at Catharine Clark, which focuses on the life and times and unrealized works of Anthony Discenza, currently presented as an exhibition of an unrealized exhibition, based on a novel that was never written, called The Disappointments.

The exhibition accompanies a stunning piece of ephemera: a black and white newsprint multi-page folded broadsheet of heady texts accompanied by moody and beautiful yet disturbingly advertisement-like photos that mirror “life-style” images from social media platforms or sites designed to offer guidance for souls bogged down by life’s tribulations to creatively succeed. A substantial essay titled Considering a Novel: An Exhibition in the Subjunctive is written by Anthony Discenza about Anthony Discenza. In it, the formation of the exhibition along with its shortcomings and ultimate solution are detailed in autobiographical prose.
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Speaking in the first person about Anthony Discenza, Anthony Discenza considers the work of the former while acknowledging the latter as author, artist and critic of his own making. Furthermore, the exhibition is an archive of gathered information, of which comprises elements never ultimately realized for an exhibition that was to take place in 2016, but has not and will not and is not. Art, not art, made into an exhibition that was not supposed to be, including things not considered art, and things so art that they hurt.

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glossary:

​EPHEMERA
noun
- something of no lasting significance —usually used in plural
- ephemera plural :  paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles
- things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.
- items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.

NOVEL
adjective
- new and not resembling something formerly known or used
- original or striking especially in conception or style
noun
- a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.
 
SUBJUNCTIVE
grammar
- of or relating to the verb form that is used to express suggestions, wishes, uncertainty, possibility, etc.
- of, relating to, or constituting a verb form or set of verb forms that represents a denoted act or state not as fact but as contingent or possible or viewed emotionally (as with doubt or desire).
 
THE SELF
(Jungian psychology simplified)
One of the Jungian archetypes, The Self is comprised of the unification of both the consciousness and unconsciousness in a person. Through a process of individuation, one’s personality becomes fully integrated between the two centers of one’s personality: the ego and the awareness of both the unconscious and the conscious as a single, interconnected way of being in the world. Individuation is the process by which a person’s experiences, elements of their personality, the psyche (perhaps forever immature) and the mature growth of decision-making all converge together to form a well-functioning whole. A person who has a sophisticated understanding of the self, is sometimes in colloquial terms considered “fully formed.” 

Is Your Life Finished? Have You Achieved Every Dream, Every Goal, Followed Every Idea and Had Every Experience You Wanted to Have?, 2016 PA speakers, guided hypnosis MP3s Edition of 3 + 1 AP; 1/3 Dimensions variable, Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco and the artist.

Study for an Essay (On the Disappointments), 2015 Archival inkjet on Dibond Edition 2 + 1 AP; 1/2 30 x 42 inches, Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco and the artist.

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Full disclosure: Anthony Discenza was an adviser for Glossary's editor and writer while she was in grad school. She has written about his work previously. To fully understand Anthony Discenza’s exhibition about Anthony Discenza, visit the exhibition on view at Catharine Clark Gallery until April 16th, 2016.
​There will be a closing reception on Wednesday, April 13th at 6pm.