Nate Young, Stations

Installation Views | Works | Press Release

In Stations Nate Young continua la sua investigazione con una serie di diagrammi originariamente ispirati da due modelli: il padre nella sua personale nozione teologica e la spiegazione del segno nella teoria semiotica del filosofo Ferdinand de Sasussure. Il potenziale che il significato delle forme può avere resta incluso nell’estetica del diagramma inteso come marchio autorevole.
Archi, cerchi e frecce sono segni inseriti nell’opera con l’intarsio a mano. Ogni opera, densa di dettagli, esprime la propria raffinatezza nella minuziosità del lavoro. In questo contesto il disegno diventa funzionale alla cornice e non viceversa, trasformando l’opera in un basso rilievo a muro.
Con un uso della cornice latente all’idea dell’opera, concepita maggiormente come scultura, i lavori in mostra invitano lo spettatore all’esame del loro significato lasciando l’interrogativo finale. In tal senso i lavori operano come vuoti contenitori o possibilità opposte a certezze dogmatiche.
Nell’installazione Young usa le 14 Stazioni della Via Crucis come punto di partenza del lavoro, ma allo stesso tempo diserta la possibilità di un riferimento ad una precisa dottrina. Le Stazioni vengono usate non come animazione ma come metodo per muovere lo spettatore attraverso lo spazio espositivo. Tuttavia non esiste alcuna narrativa, e la natura seriale e lineare della struttura dei lavori produce una suggestiva implicazione ideologica che rimane nascosta.

Nate Young, classe 1981, vive e lavora a Minneapolis, MN.
Tra le mostre personali ricordiamo The Unseen Evidence of Things Substantiated, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; But not yet: in the spirit of linguistics, Monique Meloche, Chicago, IL; Rehearsals, Bethel University, Arden Hills, MN; Tony Lewis and Nate Young, Room East, New York, NY; Joy, The Suburban, Oak Park, IL.
Tra le mostre collettive Retreat (curated by Theaster Gates), Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; Jerome Fellows Exhibition, Mpls. College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN; Fore, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Go Tell it on the Mountain, California African Am Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Body Word and Image, Drake University, Des Moines, IA; Anthology (Participant), PS1 MOMA, New York, NY.


English version


In Stations Young continues his investigation into a series of diagrammatic marks originally abstracted from two sources; his fathers theological notations and explanations of the sign in Ferdinand de Sasussure’s semiotic theory. The potential that the forms could have meaning rests in the aesthetic of the diagram as an authoritative mark.  Operating as frame-works for latent ideas, the works invite the viewer to project meaning onto them but rather than provide the significance the work leaves to viewer to question why it is that implication may have been possible in the first place.  In this way the works operate as empty containers or possibilities as opposed to articulations filled with dogma or truth.
In this installation Young uses the 14 stations of the cross as a starting point to push the work further toward its religious reference while at the same time disrupting the ability to land on a particular doctrine. The stations serve not as an animation of the original story line, the trail and death of Christ, but as a method to move the audience through space.  Although no actual narrative occurs, the serial nature and linear structure produces an implication of logic suggesting an ideology that remains hidden.

Nate Young, born in 1981, lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.
Selected solo shows: The Unseen Evidence of Things Substantiated, The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; But not yet: in the spirit of linguistics, Monique Meloche, Chicago, IL; Rehearsals, Bethel University, Arden Hills, MN; Tony Lewis and Nate Young, Room East, New York, NY; Joy, The Suburban, Oak Park, IL.
Selected group shows: Retreat (curated by Theaster Gates), Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL; Jerome Fellows Exhibition, Mpls. College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN; Fore, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Go Tell it on the Mountain, California African Am Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Body Word and Image, Drake University, Des Moines, IA; Anthology (Participant), PS1 MOMA, New York, NY.