No. 9, The End. Photo by Michele Asselin
No. 9
Night of Destruction with Fireworks, Demolition Derby
Saturday, July 1, 2017 from 5 pm to 10 pm
Irwindale Speedway
500 Speedway Drive
Irwindale, CA 91706
Tickets were available through Irwindale Speedway: https://tix.extremetix.com/webtix/3619/event/70045?salesRef=
On July 1, 2017, the internationally renowned conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll realized No. 9, the final performance in the ongoing series My Death is Pending… Because. The performance took place at Irwindale Speedway and is a part of an ongoing series of artworks that Carroll started in 1986.
For the performance No. 9, Carroll participated in the demolition derby during the Night of Destruction and drove the 1985 Buick Riviera, the car that she previously crashed into the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Munich, Germany in 2004/2005 for the performance Late. There is an accompanying film that was shot that evening and a photographic work of the same title. Carroll’s performance entailed the driving of the car in a pattern that mirrors the flow of blood through the body’s heart until she won the derby, or until she was stopped by the demolition. A short documentary film is being produced that will be released later this year.
THE SERIES
The series emerges from a Rube Goldberg/stream-of-consciousness methodology—a conceptual process where something simple is extracted from a set of complex ideas that continue until the process comes to a complete stop. The ’85 Buick Riviera was a car that Carroll’s father had purchased and it was the last year the model would be made by GM at the Linden, New Jersey plant. The following year, GM would alter the model significantly in anticipation of it being phased out of production. The ashes of Carroll’s father are in the glove compartment in an ILLY coffee tin that is another work in this series titled, ILLY (THE TIN IS HALF FULL.).
Late, 2004/2005 was a commission for the exhibition, wir arbeiten immer noch daran, nicht mehr zu arbeiten (we keep working, to no longer work). Following the performance of the car crash into the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, the organizers repaired and shipped the car back to the port in Elizabeth, New Jersey in the United States from Munich, Germany. It is worth commenting that the Francis Alys work Lada Kopeika Project is in direct reference to Late and as was noted by the curator Britta Peters in Muenster, “Late was realized ten years earlier.”
THE PARTNERS
No. 9 is a performance and will include a film and photo series documenting the entire process. The work also incorporates the research and history of the speedway and its redevelopment into a shopping mall through foreign investment that can be linked to China’s trade initiative One Belt, One Road. Carroll is producing the work in collaboration with Michele Asselin, Ball-Nogues Studio, Eyespy Films/Michael Isabell, MEC, studios, With Projects, Inc., Section Perspective Films/Giorgio Angelini and the award winning director and Academy Award nominee Jessica Sanders.
Michele Asselin is an artist best known for her photographic portraiture focusing on individual identities within larger social constructs. Asselin has worked as an editorial photographer and many of her iconic portraits of leading cultural and public figures, including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Jeff Koons, Donald Trump and Kara Walker, have been widely published. in 2013, she photographed Hollywood Park Race Track before its demolition, and returned in 2016 to photograph the abandoned Hollywood Park Casino and the detritus left behind. Her inclusion in the 2017 California-Pacific Triennial marks the debut of this body of work and Asselin’s first museum exhibition.
Ball-Nogues Studio is an integrated design and fabrication practice operating in a territory between architecture, art and industrial design, led by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues. Essential to each project is the “design” of the production process itself, with the aim of creating environments that enhance sensation, generate spectacle and invite physical engagement.
Eyespy Films Michael Isabell has been producing still and motion imagery professionally since 1997, working primarily in fashion, music and documentary. Michael has been actively shooting stills and moving images since the age of 6. Through high school he and his production group The Royalist Ones produced eight short narrative videos, which Michael variously wrote, directed, acted, shot and edited. In the US Navy Michael as served Weapons Department Yeoman and as a Navy Journalist aboard the USS Tripoli during Operation Desert Storm. Michael studied Fine Art Photography at San Francisco State University.
Jessica Sanders is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, a director, producer and writer who works in both documentary and dramatic films. Sanders completed AFTER INNOCENCE, the highly acclaimed independent feature documentary film that she directed, produced, and wrote.
Section Perspective Films When not directing documentary films, Giorgio Angelini is a practicing architectural designer in New York City for Schaum/Shieh Architects. The office works on a wide array of projects, at scales ranging from homes to large institutional public projects, like the White Oak Music Hall. Prior to architecture, Giorgio spent most of his twenties touring in bands, including The Rosebuds and Bishop Allen. He and his partners received the 2010 Video Game Award for “Best Original Score” for Red Dead Redemption. Giorgio grew up in Houston, TX and attended the UT at Austin and earned his Masters of Architecture from Rice University.
With Projects, Inc. is a multi-disciplinary curatorial practice and design studio based in New York City founded by Jiminie Ha in 2011. With Projects, Inc. imagines artistic and commercial projects from concept to execution.
With special thanks to Ken Palmer, Irwindale Speedway and Simpson Race Products.
Thank you to the following individuals for supporting the Kickstarter campaign:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/510980453/no-9a-performance-within-a-demolition-derby-in-la?ref=creator_nav
for the production of No. 9:
Victoria Alessandra
Jed Alpert
Alserkal Avenue
Alessandro Angelini
Giorgio Angelini
Surpik and Paolo Angelini
Azadeh and Saman Arbabi
Michael Armilio and Molly Gochman
Matt Arnold
Yona Backer
Dan Beeman
Katie Beeman and Michael Russell
Shane Brennan
Lillian and Michael Carroll
Ryan Carroll
Stephanie Chao-Parkes
Anne Delaney
Katherine DeLaune
Alyssa De Luccia
Yemane Demissie
Donny Dietz
Steven Duble
Joanne Dugan
Anthony Elms
EJ Farhood
Greg Feldman and Melanie Shorin
Kim Folse
Andrew Francis and Lucinda Zilkha
Kathleen Glasder
Molly Gregory
Stefan Hagen
David Hariton and Tod Lippy
Mary Hoeveler
Ron Jean-Gilles
David Joselit
Sonja Junkers
Sharon Liebowitz
Melissa Lo
Thomas and Anne Marie Ludwig
Alexandra Marvar
Sara Meltzer
Lucas Michael
Katharine Miller
Anne Nixon
Ann Northrup
Perry Novelli
Teresa O’Donnell
Barbara Probst
Susan Rosenthal and Michael Hershfield
Matthew Ross
Suchi Reddy
Charles Renfro
Anne and Howard Riina
Brittany Sanders
Fernando Santangelo
Jerry Schwartz
Myung-Il Song
Chloe Stagaman
Amy Stone
Norah and Norman Stone
Brian Taylor
Lawrence Chad Tingley
Martha Claire Tompkins
Kristina Van Dyke
Melanie Wagner
Hubert Winter/Galerie Hubert Winter