Modern Art Oxford

Josh Kline

Freedom

22 Aug - 18 Oct 2015

Josh Kline
Freedom, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York) Installation
various media Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Freedom, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York) Installation
various media Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Freedom, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York) Installation
various media Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Respect, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York)
LED screen, media player, non-edition HD video, altered mannequin, plastic helmet, cotton, leather, nylon, cast resin, paint, steel, foam, and aluminum
dimensions variable
Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Po-Po, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York)
LED screen, media player, non-edition HD video, altered mannequin, plastic helmet, cotton, leather, nylon, cast resin, paint, steel, foam, and aluminum
dimensions variable Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Hope and Change, 2015 (installation view, New Museum, New York)
HD video, sound, color, 17:10 min. Lightbox Display: Plexiglas, LEDs and power supply, flat- screen TV, media player, and wood
Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
Josh Kline
Some Trees Breathe in Despair, 2015 (detail)
ABS plastic, paint, aluminum, vinyl, and foam
Image courtesy of 47 Canal, New York. Photo: Joerg Lohse.
JOSH KLINE
Freedom
22 August — 18 October 2015

A dystopian environment is produced at Modern Art Oxford in Freedom, the first solo exhibition in the UK by American artist Josh Kline (b. 1979).

At the centre of Freedom is a major installation from which the exhibition takes its title. Four towering ‘Police Teletubbies’ dressed in SWAT gear guard a space modelled after Zuccotti Park, the privately owned public space in New York City and site of the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in 2011.

In Hope and Change, US President Barack Obama, played by an actor augmented with facial substitution software, delivers a provocative new version of the President’s 2009 inaugural speech.

In this darkly compelling new exhibition, Kline highlights the erosion of privacy and civil rights in the 21st century.

Freedom is the first in a cycle of projects planned by Kline that will explore the political and economic landscape of the future.

With thanks to New Museum, New York; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and 47 Canal, New York.

Josh Kline

Josh Kline (b. 1979, Philadelphia, USA) lives and works in New York. In 2015, his work was included in the New Museum's Triennial exhibition, Surround Audience, curated by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin; and the first exhibition at the new Whitney Museum, America is Hard to See. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at MoMA PS1, White Columns, 47 Canal, and on The High Line among others in New York; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Schirn Kunstahalle, Frankfurt; ICA Philadelphia; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; and Castillo/Corrales, Paris. As a curator, Kline has organised exhibitions at venues including MoMA PS1, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Gresham’s Ghost, 179 Canal, and Canada Gallery in New York. His work has been written about in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Frieze, Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, Texte Zur Kunst, Gawker, The Daily Beast, Mousse, and The New Yorker.
 

Tags: Lauren Cornell, Josh Kline, Ryan Trecartin