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Elsewhere Oracle | Monica Lacey
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Cleaned, repaired, re-upholstered, and revived after an unfortunate fiery encounter, the Surrey has risen like a phoenix from the ashes and rides again on the front sidewalk.
We, Adam and Rosalynn Rothstein, are a human partnership in which artistic and conceptual interests merged to a cohesive narrative from what, to us, seemed to be two disparate backgrounds. Much of Rosalynn’s current influence comes from practicing Sogetsu Ikebana–the Japanese art of flower arranging. The founder of the Sogetsu School, Sofu Teshigahara, did not see a boundary between sculpture and decorative flower arranging. Her work in the academic field of folklore also informs the partnership’s thinking about ethnography, vernacular practice and vernacular culture.Adam is an insurgent archivist and writes about politics, media, and technology. He is most interested in the canons of history and prediction, the so-called “Future-Weird”, and the unstable ramifications of today’s cultural technology. In the artistic arena, he is interested technology-based art and the interaction between manufacturing technology and craft, as well as social production skills. This includes the social aspects of production and art–not only art’s effect on society, but the work of production’s effect on society. As we began to examine and merge our artistic practices, we became interested in large scale installations that push the viewer and require the viewer to interact with the piece and the work process. Re-used and re-purposed materials have also come to serve as the basis for much of our practice. While we believe in creating a professional and aesthetically pleasing end product, we focus on using materials that reach this goal and also make use of materials which might otherwise be discarded. Our other work focuses on viewer interaction and modes of presentation which push the viewer to be self-conscious of their perspective. Adam’s technical skills in material assemblage (welding, adhesives, carpentry) and Rosalynn’s perspective from Ikebana (the importance of space, line and mass) help us create successful installations with re-used materials which analyze the importance of our relationships to objects, as well as our relationships to each other.