SUNDAY BAZAAR
Poetic research and archival unit Shanzhai Lyric, with Canal Street Research Association, will present a new window installation, titled Reserve.
Lower East Side trash artist and gleaner Rolando Politi has for decades conceived of a local alternative currency made of found bottle caps, called Kap Kurrency. Inspired by Politi, Canal Street Research Association presents an ongoing reserve of bottle caps to be minted by the Bank of Garbagia. Gathered and draped like strings of fruit or beads, the installation recalls the market as a site for the exchange and display of riches. The plastic bottle cap, used and discarded with wanton disregard, is here preserved as an object of beauty that accrues value. With this offering, Reserve questions the monetary systems that govern our lives—and which so often lead to the hoarding, rather than sharing, of resources.
Image credit: Day Sinclair, 2022.
Lower East Side trash artist and gleaner Rolando Politi has for decades conceived of a local alternative currency made of found bottle caps, called Kap Kurrency. Inspired by Politi, Canal Street Research Association presents an ongoing reserve of bottle caps to be minted by the Bank of Garbagia. Gathered and draped like strings of fruit or beads, the installation recalls the market as a site for the exchange and display of riches. The plastic bottle cap, used and discarded with wanton disregard, is here preserved as an object of beauty that accrues value. With this offering, Reserve questions the monetary systems that govern our lives—and which so often lead to the hoarding, rather than sharing, of resources.
Image credit: Day Sinclair, 2022.
In tandem with their Window project, during the this year’s NY Art Book Fair, on Sunday October 16, Shanzhai Lyric reprises Çanal Street Researçh Assoçiation, their ongoing homage to the legacy of artists experimenting in retail. The shop takes cues from local retail experiments including Wooster Enterprises, Godzilla’s Curio Shop, Fluxshop — which once stood at 359 Canal Street — and the short-lived Fluxus outpost La Cédilla qui Sourit, or The Cedilla That Smiles, which famously never managed to sell a single item. Named for the transformational grapheme that changes a hard “c” into a soft one, a cedilla looks like an upside down question mark. Çanal Street Researçh Assoçiation will have on offer an assortment of real and bootleg works.
For more info about the window installation, click here.
For more info about the window installation, click here.