How to Build a World That Won't Fall Apart

How to Build a World That Won't Fall Apart

October 19th -
November 10th, 2012

How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart, part 1 is a solo exhibition exploring labor as it relates to institutions, featuring the work of The Luminary founders Brea and James McAnally under their collaborative artistic identity US English.

Opening Reception:
October 19th from 7pm - 10pm

“For me, the fundamental question is to explore the possibility of maintaining spaces of play. To discover how to produce forms for the presentation of objects, forms for the organizations of spaces, that thwart expectations. The main enemy of artistic creativity as well as of political creativity is consensus — that is, inscription within given roles, possibilities, and competences.” –Jacques Ranciere

The exhibition was conceived in response to the ‘operaist’ worker movements of the 1970’s that posited the worker at the center of historical struggle, prefiguring successive transformations of economies, institutions, and forms of being. How to Build… takes place in a transitional moment for the organization and provides a space for introspection and experimentation, teasing out the collective identity of the institution through the work of its founders.

The exhibition initiates a season-long exploration into how artists and alternative arts organizations sustain themselves in times of social and economic uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on projects that have developed in relation to the current economic recession. The series will move successively outwards, from the individuals within an institution to global experiments in artist-led practice.

US English is the collaborative project of James and Brea McAnally, the founders of The Luminary and active artists, writers, curators and musicians in their individual practices. US English explores collective identity, spatial politics, and forms of protest through a diverse collection of text, sound, objects, events, and interventions, often initiating large-scale projects in public space. US English acts as both a pseudonym and a form of speaking.

The Luminary’s exhibitions are generously supported by the Arts and Education Council and the Missouri Arts Council.