Repository | Vivian Charlesworth + Edek Sher

Residency
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Repository, Vivian Charlesworth and Edek Sher (Providence, RI). 

May 2017. Installation view. Video, Found ribbon, metal frames, fabric, mirror, monitor with performance of dust stored in a safety deposit box.

Repository is a video-documented performance and a sculptural vault set within Elsewhere’s longstanding and ever-evolving immersive installation, The Ribbon Room. Because of the great density of the material contained within the room, the space poses many challenges for artists working there. Consequently, the ribbons have been static for several years. Many of them lie in a state of decay.

At the center of Repository is video documentation of Charlesworth and Sher ritualistically depositing dust - the powdered remains of past ribbons, separated and siphoned off - into a safe-deposit box at a local bank. At Elsewhere, everything is saved until it has been worn down to dust - by time, by use, by neglect. Dust is an essential material that can be both valuable and valueless, yet it is the only part of the Elsewhere collection that is allowed to leave the museum. The immersive depository is a theatrical and virtual space for visitors to pay homage to the dust.

Respository, Vivian Charlesworth + Edek Sher (Providence, RI) May 2017. Wood, ribbons, monitor, video footage of dust stored in a safe deposit box, metal frames. Repository is a video documented performance and a sculptural vault set within Elsewhere’s longstanding and ever evolving immersive installation, the Ribbon Room. Initiatives to detangle the massive ribbon collection began in 2010, with artist Danya Kriz, and the space has been in flux ever since. Due to the great density of the material contained within the room, the space poses many challenges for artists working in that space. Consequently, the ribbons have been static for several years proceeding the 2016 renovation, and many of them lie in a state of decay. At the center of Repository is video documentation of the artists ritualistically depositing dust - the powdered remains of past ribbons which have been separated and syphoned off - into a safe-deposit box at a local bank. At Elsewhere everything is saved until it has been worn down to dust - by time, by use, by neglect. Dust is an essential material that can be both valuable and value-less, yet it is the only part of Elsewhere’s collection that is allowed to leave the museum. The immersive depository is a theatrical and virtual space for visitors to pay homage to the dust.

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Vivian Charlesworth
Vivian Charlesworth

Vivian Charlesworth's objects and immersive environments create a space for physical interplay between the viewer and the artwork. Each piece fosters a sensation of stepping into the middle of a story. In order to make the viewer aware of their own gaze, Charlesworth immerses them within fragmented narratives that ask to be reassembled. Each viewer creates their own story based on the information they choose to process and engage with. She inserts the viewer into the position of explorer, bystander or spy, challenging them to interrogate and confront their own presumptions about narrative.

During her residency at Elsewhere, Charlesworth created Repository.

Edek Sher
Edek Sher

Edek Sher earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016 and a BA from Kenyon College in 2013. Sher's work focuses on the individual's creative role when confronted with faceless corporations and abstractions like climate change and mass surveillance. Blending his interest in literature, electronic media, and internet subcultures, Sher creates experimental music and multi-channel video installations that seek to overwhelm the viewer.

During his residency at Elsewhere, Sher created Repository.

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