with performances by Black Dice, Electrophilia, Foot, Christian Marclay and Merzbow
November 12, 2002 – January 4, 2003
“Jutta and I had a discussion about failed paintings. Maybe the color wasn’t right or they were fucked-up in some way (physically, ideologically, or by situation). Our solution was to save them by blacking them out, canceling the image/object. A positive/negative, deconstruct to reconstruct, chaos to order to chaos…We decided to show these re-claimed paintings and dedicate the show to Gerorge Groszs Deathdada, caught in the flux between dissonance and consonance.” -Steven Parrino, 2001
Taking inspiration from the anarchic history of Dada and their own involvement with punk rock, Jutta Koether and Steven Parrino presented BLACK BONDS, an exhibition which reinvented anti-art’s collaborative spirit. The gallery featured Koether and Parrino’s “failed paintings”: blacked-out by the artists to cancel, and in turn, reconstruct their works. The black paintings served to define a conceptually destructed environment in which six noise performances took place. Koether and Parrino performed as Electrophilia at both the opening and closing events, and invited Black Dice, Foot, Christian Marclay and Merzbow to join their collaboration. Looking toward the institution’s avant-garde roots in Zurich, SI served as a new Cabaret Voltaire, hosting a reincarnation of noise, and anarchic play, in the spirit of both Dada and punk rock.
