Sandra Erbacher

September 19th, 2024 — October 29th, 2024
EXTENDED through Nov 9th, 2024

The gallery hours for this exhibition are Monday through Friday, 2 PM — 6 PM. Admission is free.
Press Release

CLOSING EVENT
Sandra Erbacher in conversation with Ruth Estevez
Saturday, November 9th, 2024, 5 pm 
Penumbra Highlight Studio

Erbacher will discuss with researcher, curator and artist Estevez her interest in the documents generated by the Eugenics Record Office, and her engagement with an archive’s rules, organizing principles and function.

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Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present a ll i ll w i ll, a solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Sandra Erbacher, formed in response to the collection of documents produced by the Eugenics Record Office (ERO), located in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

Established by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the ERO gathered biological and social information about the ancestry of the American population, such as inborn physical, mental, and temperamental traits. Erbacher’s work engages with the collection on different levels, considering the structure of the archive housing the documents by analyzing its rules, organizing principles and function, in this case, to promote the idea of race-betterment and the influence of government policy on matters of immigration restriction and sterilization - the legacy of which can still be felt today.

In her reproduction of the archive’s materials, Erbacher avoids replicating the clinical and colonial gaze through arrangements of collage, text and objects in space. Handwritten descriptive text plays with the expectations of mental illness; the imperfection of her non-mechanical lettering rebukes the presumed control of archival authority. Collaged photographs displace the scrutinized identifying details of the subjects of pedigree studies, conjuring the human beings at the heart of the cases.

Subverting categorization away from the linear constructs of chronology and the thematic, publications with earthy beige and ambient blue covers are arranged according to their hue, value, and saturation, bringing to light how certain colors can make the information presented seem “natural,” inevitable, like objective fact/ truth. Similar to the anthropological objects and imagery intently arranged and displayed, they are opportunities to create personal and subjective connections that examine and challenge the dominant systematic narrative.

By playing with modes of remembering and forgetting that are embedded in the bureaucratic structure of an archive, Erbacher tries to restore the research subjects’ selfhood - a futile attempt, as only fragments of the whole person can be accessed through an archive.

About the artist
Sandra Erbacher is a German interdisciplinary artist living and working in Providence, RI. She has earned her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2014) and her BFA from Camberwell College of Art, London (2009). She also holds a BA and MA in Sociology from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Erbacher has exhibited nationally and internationally, at Penumbra Foundation, Rueff Gallery, Purdue University, Cuchifritos, mh PROJECT, The International Studio and Curatorial Program, Stellar Projects, Spring/ Break, Grin Providence, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, and Space, Portland. 

Most recently, Erbacher has participated in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture residency (2024). In previous years, she won a Center for Book Arts Residency, and a Manhattan Graphics Center Scholarship (2023), and participated in the 2019 Artist Alliance Lower East Side Studio Program, the 2017-18 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency, and the 2015 NARS Foundation Residency. She is the recipient of a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, the 2014 Chazen Prize to an Outstanding MFA Student and the Blink Grant for Public Art 2013.

Her work is part of the Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection, the James M. And Cathleen D. Stone Foundation, the Tedeschi Collection, Montreal, and numerous private Collections in the US and Europe.
sandraerbacher.com

a ll i ll w i ll was organized by Sandra Erbacher and Lisa di Donato.
Interim Programs Director: Lisa di Donato.

About Ruth Estevez
Ruth Estevez is a researcher, curator and artist. Currently, she is the Co-Director of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, faculty in the Curatorial Studies Program at SVA in New York, and at MICA's Rinehart School of Sculpture. She was Co-Curator of the 34th São Paulo Biennial (2021) and Gallery Director and Curator at REDCAT/Calarts (2012-2018). Her work is focused on the aesthetic, social, and political shifts of collective creation in performance art and theater.

Ackknowledgements
Penumbra’s Project Gallery is generously supported in part by the Joy of Giving Something.

Penumbra Foundation’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

About the Project Gallery
The 300 square-foot Project Gallery offers emerging and mid-career artists a place to present new work. The exhibitions are developed in conjunction with Penumbra's editorial or educational programming. 

Contact: Lisa di Donato | lisa@penumbrafoundation.org