Peter Fend sees that the date, June 28, has set off many monumental events. In 1914, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand: WW I. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles: WW II. In 1965, first ground troops deployed: Vietnam War. All these wars in the past 100 years, Fend says, have set up and defended the Oil Industry. Could the next June 28, in 2013, start an end to the Oil Industry? In New York State? Fend uses another June 28 event, in 1894: the US Congress mandating a day to celebrate physical effort: Labor Day. With Labor, instead of just Capital, New York City and New York State can start a scientifically-researched practice, in NY waters, to reverse climate change. Mayor Bloomberg has proposed to spend $20 billion to protect against events like Superstorm Sandy. Fend proposes the same amount to prevent events like Sandy in the short and long term. New York City has an enormous natural resource: the saltwater of the Labrador Current, flowing into New York and New Jersey from Greenland, Hudson's Bay and the Arctic. Fend claims the resource can be culled daily to yield zero-warming, zero-pollution fuel. New York State's Sea Grant Institute called for just this in 1982, organizing a conference of top US and China scientists and engineers. Now, 30 years later, Fend says we can start, in co-operation, or parallel?, with China and its East Asia neighbors. The proposals were prepared during Sandy at Peanut Underground, New York, and had been slated for discussion at MIT... but maybe are too "tender."

 

That same evening, June 28, following the historical record, Sam Ashford performs a two-part presentation around questions of our time. The first part explores the inconsistencies in all value systems, especially those in the context of art, history, and labor. The second part operates around the position that if crimes are designed, design itself is inherently criminal. Using language, poetics, and disguised research, these lectures seek to illuminate and disrupt common contemporary perspectives. Images and text, released in disagreement, redacted by negotiation.

 

Art by nature is a threat to the state. But this is what Jefferson wanted: continuous turnover of power—and prestige.

 

Peter Fend is represented by Essex Street, New York, recently showed / debated at Glasshouse, New York, and is now in an exhibition at the Gemeente Museum, Holland, entitled "How Art Can Save the World". 

 

Sam Ashford graduated from Cooper Union in 2011. He shows in small venues, alleys, and bars from Brooklyn to Philadelphia.

 

MORE TO COME FRIDAYS: July 12, August 9, August 23, September 16, September 30