Knockdown Center presents Chloë Bass: The Book of Everyday Instruction, an eight-chapter investigation of one-on-one social interaction, exploring an expanded understanding of pairing. On view for the first time in its entirety, the exhibition includes all eight major projects developed by Bass between January 2015 and January 2018 as well as additional interventions created in response to Knockdown Center’s public spaces outside of the gallery. Following the exhibition, the project will also be released as a book, published by The Operating System, and designed and edited by Lynne Desilva-Johnson.

Bass uses daily life as a site of research to study the modes and scales of intimacy, locating where patterns hold and break as group sizes expand. Her works prioritize the fostering and observing of everyday interpersonal situations, and take a variety of forms across photography, text, video, sculpture, performance, a mobile phone app, poetic modes of documentation, and site-specific interventions. Presented in sequential chapters, each with its own central question and focus, Bass’ inquiries expand in scale and scope; she begins with an investigation of intimacy between herself and a stranger, and expands outward to study the relationships between individuals and their safe spaces, institutions, and finally cities.

Organized by Alexis Wilkinson, Knockdown Center Director of Exhibitions and Live Art

Programs:
Friday, May 25
7:00pm: Couples Counseling for Artists and Institutions Workshop
Sunday, June 3
5:00pm: A Field Guide to Spatial Intimacy Workshop
Thursday, June 14
7:00pm: Protect & Preserve Lecture Performance
8:00pm: Closing Party

Chloë Bass is a multiform conceptual artist working in performance, situation, conversation, publication, and installation. Her work uses daily life as a site of deep research to address scales of intimacy: where patterns hold and break as group sizes expand. She began her work with a focus on the individual (The Bureau of Self-Recognition, 2011 – 2013), has recently concluded a study of pairs (The Book of Everyday Instruction, 2015 – 2017), and will continue to scale up gradually until she’s working at the scale of the metropolis. Chloë has held numerous fellowships and residencies; 2017’s included Triangle Art Association, the Center for Book Arts, and Antenna’s Spillways Fellowship. She is currently the Recess Analog artist in residence. Her projects have appeared nationally and internationally, including recent exhibits at the Kitchen, the Brooklyn Museum, CUE Art Foundation, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the James Gallery, and elsewhere. Her forthcoming book will be published by the Operating System in May 2018. Writing has also appeared on Hyperallergic, Arts.Black, and the Walker Reader among others. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Queens College, CUNY. chloebass.com; recessanalog.org