12MIDNIGHT

In March to June 2013, the artist Reza Aramesh installed 5 sculptures in 5 different nightclubs in New York, each for the duration of one month. The clubs were selected to represent a wide social spectrum of New York City; the exclusive Number 8, Bossa Nova Civic Club where drinks normally cost one dollar, the flamboyantly gay Sugarland, the arty Santos Party House, the white working class hub of The Marquis. The sculptures draw on the images of violence and conflict that we are continuously bombarded with by mass media, to the point of general indifference. Bringing these images of violence to a different arena, a different setting of daily life, the artist initiates an investigation into notions of violence and voyeurism. The title 12Midnight refers to the custom of executions taking place at midnight as well as the nocturnal euphoria of the clubber. Presenting the sculptures in boxes, viewable only through keyholes further accentuates the notions of voyeurism, and even desire, the project also references Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes. More than just an exhibition catalogue the book becomes a work of art in itself, taking the reader trough the journey of the project's conception and inner logic.