PRESS RELEASE

SEPTEMBER 6-11, 2023
SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC 2023 WILD CARD
Lickety-Split, All in Jest!
Janet Loren Hill
Curator: Taylor Lee Nicholson

BOOTH #1101
Press Preview: Wednesday, Sept 6th, 11AM - 5PM
Opening Night: Wednesday, Sept 6th, 5PM - 8PM
Public Show Days: Thursday, Sept 7th - Monday, Sept 11th, 11AM - 7PM

Location: 625 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022

The rumors are true: Janet Loren Hill, a multidisciplinary artist who does it all from painting to parachuting, has returned to SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York City. After winning the first annual Single/Palm Trophy for Best Curation at SPRING/BREAK LA’s installment earlier this year alongside co-curator Jonell Logan, Hill returns to embody a morally ambiguous prankster, a 1940s carnival barker, a medieval court jester. In Tarot, this role is known as “The Fool,” situated at both the beginning and end of the deck. Hill’s work reflects this powerful duality of Alpha and Omega with the Origin Stories and Apocalypses of the Hammerhead people and the Chattering Teeth who, after being birthed by the Hammerhead people, consume their hosts.

“The Fool” is also a stand-in for the player, which brings us to you, dear viewer. Hill invites you to step right up and participate in Lickety-Split, All in Jest!, an immersive installation and game of violence and voyeurism. Not everyone can be a winner. In fact, in order to win you must destroy something. Let us explain, lickety-split! The Game begins every hour on the hour. Before entering the booth to start the game, Hill and her henchman transform into Jesters as they don ritualistic garb - including pinnies and glow-in-the-dark masks - that can be described as Pussy Riot meets Executioner. These vestments vest Hill and company with a sinister aura as the clock ticks down and they shout: “Begin!” Chattering teeth sculptures bejeweled in mosaic hungrily chomp across a vibrating tabletop. You and other contestants crowd around this table, but unlike a game of roulette or craps you will brandish a prodder to bully the teeth across the convulsing surface. The first one to break a lone Chattering Teeth constructed from New York dirt, will be declared Winner, coronated with a Chattering Teeth Crown. As far as what the losers get, we’re sure you’ve heard the hearsay echoing across SPRING/BREAK’s aisles. The paparazzi will descend any minute now…will you be Victim or Victor? Don’t forget to smile!

Lose track of time in this dizzying den, where the house lights go up to illuminate and go down to obscure. Like a stereogram, the exhibition alters the more you look at it, a reality-bending optical illusion unfolding as time passes and your eyes cross. When the house lights go up you get to play voyeur: Study the origin story of the Hammerhead people in Hill’s Binocular Paintings, whose curvilinear borders teem with texture. Bring a cautionary tale (or two) into and out of focus with kaleidoscopic Lookie-Loos, Hill’s surreal take on opera glasses. Peer into the peephole for a grotto a la Niki de Saint Phalle. When the house lights go down, however, the prodders glow, as do the interior mouths of the chattering teeth. What did the teeth ingest in jest? Is that an image shuddering across the shuttered blinds? What is hidden among the Hammerhead people who glow unyielding and ominously in the dark, insta-frescoes on walls that were only orange a moment ago? You’ll be wondering what is real and what is alchemy when the house lights change again and ricochet across mirrorball mosaic teeth sculptures to cast shattered reflections across the menacing masks of your peers as they poke and prod. Hill’s layered work asks, when perception shapes your reality, can you trust that your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, The Fool? Among the mob, chanting with Chattering Teeth, swept up in the noise and what is being destroyed, you may even lose yourself in odyssey. Were you playing a game, or are you the game - quarry to be hunted for recreation and trophies, to cower beneath the glare of your rivals and the slaps of Extendo-arms stretching down from the panoptic parachute ceiling? All in jest, of course, so don’t be shy! Vibrant your vocal chords, clatter and clap, chatter and chant! It’s just a jape, game and gambol, victims and victors! The end is near, so you might as well play! Altogether now: “LICKETY-SPLIT, ALL IN JEST!”