Title: Paradise Syndrome

Posted In: Exhibition

Duration: 21 October 2015 to 18 November 2015

Venue: Puccio European Marble Works

Opening Hours: Open on weekends 2-6 PM and by appointment on week days

Location: 661 Driggs Ave. Brooklyn New York City , NY NY 11121 United States

Email: [email protected]

An eternal state of bliss, purity and uninterrupted comfort may be the definitions that “paradise” is usually associated with —but what happens when we actually enter such an ideal realm? Disappointment seems to be the answer, as this contemporary art exhibition in an abandoned marble factory in Brooklyn, NY, let us understand. Staged as a “post-apocalyptic Garden of Eden” by curator Ana Perez Escoto, the exhibition “ Paradise Syndrome ” takes its name from a psychological condition where a person feels empty and disappointed after achieving all of his or her goals. Although psychologists haven’t officially recognised this condition, as a “syndrome” it afflicts extremely wealthy and privileged individuals who have fulfilled all their dreams and have nothing else to wish for or look forward to. The exhibition picks up this theme of excessive material wealth and debauchery and transfers it into an almost dilapidated setting, where the abandoned factory’s debris and working surfaces are mixed with the actual artworks, many of which were created in situ using found pieces of wood, marble, brick and metal.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects. In symphony with its subject, the exhibition achieves a sense of something frustratingly fleeting and unobtainable, as seen for example in the constant movement and morphing of Juan Fontanive’s motorised flipbook of exotic birds (“Ornithology I”, 2015) and the ever-shifting kaleidoscopic patterns in Alois Kronschlaeger’s “Multicolored Cube Configuration #2” (2015). Meanwhile, Mario Navarro’s assemblage “Marmor Isodomum” (2015) brings together a neat and well-organised collection of discarded marble pieces, as if the overlooked scraps and leftovers of luxurious objects that decorate opulent homes have come together to form a little utopia of their own. Across the bone-bare industrial room, Ishmael Randall Weeks’ untitled installation with live plants (2015) plays with futility and impermanence, since the artist has used the plants as stencils to spray paint on the white surface behind them. Traversing this twisted workshop of defeated happiness, one realises how our fabricated notion of ideal existence, our “Paradise”, is both chimaeric and, ironically, comical in its ambition.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects. The exhibition “Paradise Syndrome” is the latest pop-up event from PEANA , a platform for contemporary Latin American and Spanish art founded by Ana Perez Escoto, and will remain on display at the former factory of “Puccio European Marble Works” till November 18, 2015. Participating artists include Silvina Arismendi, Adrian S. Bara, Aldo Chaparro, Juan Fontanive, Ricardo Gonzalez, Alois Kronschlaeger, Alberto Lopez, Norman Mooney, Mario Navarro, Ishmael Randall Weeks, Francisco Ugarte and Alexis Zambrano.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Alexis Zambrano Tissot's holiday at Glass House, 2015 Oil on Canvas 46 in. x 70 in. (117 cm x 178 cm).

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Aldo Chaparro This is / isn't Hapiness, 2014 Neon and acrylic box 39.37 in. x 47.24 in. x 2.7 in. (100 cm x 120 cm x 7 cm).  This work is a single acrylic box, on which the letters "n't" flash on and off, thus constantly changing the written phrase's meaning.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Aldo Chaparro Acero (Slate), 2014 Stainless steel and electrostatic paint 37 in. x 62 in. (93.98 cm x 157.48 cm).

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Paradise Lost, 2015. Installation view. Courtesy PEANA Projects.

Norman Mooney Wall Flower No. 5 Cast aluminum with white pigment, Ed. of 3 76 in. x 36 in. (193 cm x 91.4 cm).

Puccio European Marble Works III, 2015 Removed and reassembled objects from the space Variable dimensions.

Mario Navarro Marmor Isodomum, 2015 Found marble pieces, mirror Ed. 1/1 11.8 in x 8.6 in x 5.90 in (30 cm x 22 cm x 15 cm).

Francisco Ugarte Untitled, 2015 Wooden structure, black paint and floor 11.98 x 13.48 ft (365 cm x 411 cm).

Mario Navarro About meeting and converging I, 2015 Found materials (wood, aluminum) Ed. 1/1 24 in. x 36 in. (60 cm x 91.5 cm).

Silvina Arismendi Lilac Spring, 2014 Stretcher Bars and plastic string 83.3 in (213 cm).

Alexis Zambrano Untitled, 2015 Pysanky Ostrich Egg, bone puzzle sphere base, native american seedpot, african wood base 19.7 in x 7.8 in x 20.5 in (50 cm x 20 cm x 52 cm).

Silvina Arismendi Spears, 2015 Wood and plastic string Variable Dimensions.

Silvina Arismendi Spears, 2015 Wood and plastic string Variable Dimensions.