Josephine Meckseper Shelf #31 2005 mixed media on metal shelf 23.75" x 60" x 14" [large detail of installation]

Josephine Meckseper's show at Elizabeth Dee was the highlight of a Chelsea afternoon on Saturday, and I hadn't even prepped.

Total serendipity.

Barry and I still had a lot of catching up to do after being away for a few weeks, and because of a seven-hour time change we had been pretty much out of it for a week or after that. The result was that we were kinda focused on shows which were closing that day or in the near future when we saw the faux shop windows on either side of the entrance to the gallery on 20th Street.

From the press release:

Starting with the façade, Meckseper will alter the windows of Elizabeth Dee Gallery to resemble the dramatic display windows of an upscale department store. Mixing semantic codes, the objects on display in one window will seem to sell a vision of current American politics, while the other will offer images of an oppositional culture of protest and references to the women's correctional facility across the street. Vinyl lettering suggests the monolithic encroachment of a homogenizing globalism in a leveraged buyout and merger of New York's most prominent museum, gallery, and exhibition sponsor.

Meckseper State of the Union Address to Senate and Nation 2005 glass, mirror, newspaper, chrome, metal mesh, found jewelry 42" x 18" x 12" [installation view, with three other works, Clearance Sale, Untitled (50% Off) and Untitled (Mirror Wall), in background]

Meckseper Untitled (Vitrine) 2005 mixed media in display window 46" x 46" x 18.5" [installation view]

Meckseper [installation view of a piece introduced to the show late; its details are not yet available]