Paul Pescador: Gifts (Apr 4)

Exhibitions

Gifts by Paul Pescador

April 4-13, 2009
Opening Reception Saturday, April, 4 7-10 pm
The Gallery will be open during the NELA art walk April 11, 6-9pm

Through video, found objects and text, Pescador employs gift-giving as a means to understanding social exchange. Influenced by the writing of Maurcel Mauss and Lewis Hyde, Pescador approaches the gift as a powerful object capable of evoking loss, love, and the humor of the awkward moment.

Pescador collects the unwanted gifts of friends and family, and investigates how these mass-produced trinkets come to be imbued with personal history and tension. Making use of the storefront window of workspace, this collection of jettisoned objects is on view for passersby as they peer into the windows of party stores and retail shops along the street. Accompanying the unwanted gifts is a wall text and a video projection. The wall-text is transcribed from interviews with four individuals responsible for a messy episode where an Asian Jesus figurine was re-gifted over the course of one year. The video presents documentation of pedestrians as they stumble upon a fully wrapped gift-box left by the artist on the sidewalk. For Pescador, gifting (and re-gifting) is an entrée into the unspoken politics of our relationships, from the most intimate to the anonymous.