By Any Means UnNecessary
Mission 17's First Annual Juried Exhibition

Including works by: Stephen Anderson, Sonya Blesofsky, Nancy Mizuno Elliot, Lora Finelli, Yael Friedman, Dan Grayber, Hannah Hammond-Hagman, Monica Johnson, David Kasdorf, Ellen Lake, Kristina Noelle Lewis, Julia Petho, Job Piston, Shawn Smith, Jill Sylvia, and Michael Trigilio

Juried by: Clark Buckner, Mayumi Hamanaka, Taro Hattori, Kimberlee Koym, and Jennifer Rosenberg

December 16th, 2004 - January 15th, 2005

Modern society harnesses human energies ever more exhaustively for instrumental ends. Every impulse, it seems, must be put to use – though the ultimate purpose of all this work too often seems absurd. At the same time, we find ourselves inundated with commodities. Our hyper-productive society relishes in consumption; but this endless orgy too often leaves us altogether unsatisfied. What is and isn’t necessary? What are the politics of work and play? Is free-time good for nothing more than “vacation?” If art is defined by purposelessness, is it merely frivolous? What do we need? Mission 17 invited artists to submit work that explores the dialectics of necessity. Orienting topics included:

• excess and deprivation
• irrationality and instrumentalization
• work and play
• freedom and determinism
• discipline and rebellion
• fetishism
• consumerism
• decadence, among others.

- Clark Buckner

Photos

Press

"By Any Means UnNecessary," Alison Bing, SF Gate, January, 2005

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