Purple Art
[June 14 2013]
Jonah Freeman & Justin Lowe present “Artichoke Underground” at Art Basel: Unlimited, Basel
Artichoke Underground continues Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe’s practice of creating large-scale spatial collages in which the visitor traverses a sequence of rooms. In a new formal development this piece is assembled through incongruent pairings of pre-fabricated architectural systems into a single autonomous structure. The edifices of retail display booths, modular offices, and temporary industrial sites are cut-up and amalgamated into a warren of reconfigured interiors.
Artichoke Underground was founded by Raoul Arcade and Amanda Winter as an underground publication that challenged the hegemony of mainstream media and suggested new relationships to the technology of language and the organization of the city. AU lasted fourteen years and became famous not just for its DIY publishing but for media pranks and experiments in technologically augmented mind exploration. Freeman and Lowe recreate and expand upon much of the printed magazines, posters, and books of the AU here installed within the site of production and dissemination. It is from this central room that we have fragmented views of other spaces, which include an incubator for the study of plant consciousness, a digital data center that has been overtaken by crystal growth, a Punjabi kitchen, and an abandoned trade fair booth. Photo Annabel Fernandes
