ART-PRESENTATION: Ethan Hayes-Chute
In his sculptures, drawings, text pieces, and performative workshops, Ethan Hayes-Chute explores ideas of self-sufficiency and self-preservation, making reference to outsider architecture, alternative modes of living, ecology and waste. He takes a DIY, vernacular approach to technology and architecture, and constructs nearly functional cabins and partial interiors, outfitted with minute attention to detail, from salvaged materials.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: List Visual Arts Center Archive
Ethan Hayes-Chute for his 2008 exhibition built a small, near-functional cabin (the first in a series of similar structures). Constructed entirely from salvaged materials and outfitted with minute attention to detail, the tiny house included an open notebook and the remainders of a meal left on a dining table illuminated by an electric lamp, thus conveying the impression that visitors had wandered into someone’s temporarily deserted, private living space. The exhibition at the List Visual Arts Center presents a new architectural installation developed for Bakalar Gallery that includes the display of a number of repurposed 1980s Epson HX-20 Notebook computers. Hayes-Chute reprograms the near-obsolete machines (considered to be the first laptop computers and becoming widely available in the United States in the early ‘80s) and uses them for a range of practical applications, including as a labeling device for his absurdist home-made ointments, sauces, and custom spice blends, which have been arranged into various shelf and table assemblages. The typographical and format restrictions imposed by the rudimentary word processor are a signature graphic element throughout his work, turning the HX-20 into, as he states, “A sort of retro-futuristic concrete poetry device”. Also on view is a series of smaller assemblages using found and retrofitted objects, as well as selected video works from his recent collaborative project Conglomerate.tv, an artist-run television network originating from Berlin. “The New Domestic Woodshop” (2016), Hayes-Chute’s first contribution to the channel billed as bringing “Your domestic fantasies to life”, riffs on DIY-culture and amateur tutorials posted on YouTube. As the artist demonstrates how to construct a pizza oven from two hot plates, he also presents a deadpan reflection on his own working process in the studio.
Info: Curator: Henriette Huldisch, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Building E15, Cambridge, Duration 19/7-16/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 12:00-18:00, Thu 12:00-20:00, https://listart.mit.edu
