“There is a state of mind, known to religious men, but to no others, in which the will to assert ourselves and hold our own has been displaced by a willingness to close our mouths and be as nothing in the floods and waterspouts of God.” – William James
In this exhibition, Nick Raffel has modified the architecture and hardware of the space to create a new airflow pattern. Sixteen inches of drywall have been removed from a partition wall, exposing the studs. The space’s two fans have been replaced with larger, more adjustable models. These changes generate a looping, circular airflow in the gallery, refreshing air in the stuffy rear room and subtly shaping visitors’ experience.
For the past decade, Raffel has actively proposed improvements to the buildings where he exhibits. His first proposal—to install an outdoor shower behind Pied-à-terre, an art space in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood—was rejected. Since then, he has primarily focused on enhancing airflow in his designs. His
Bubbly Creek Bat Houses, installed along the Chicago River, provide bats with a sheltered space to rest and nurture their offspring. While his projects respond to the specific needs of a building or environment, they employ familiar architectural and mechanical adjustments that could be applied wherever necessary.
Raffel’s work continues a tradition of Institutional Critique, engaging ambivalently with authorship and the role of the artist in the art world. His interventions blur the line between artwork and functional improvement, capable of persisting indefinitely as part of their surroundings. Rather than relying on outsourced industrial production rooted in contemporary commodity capitalism, he operates like a contractor or tinkerer, making pragmatic modifications with ease and a focus on general enhancement.
– Giampaolo Bianconi
Nick Raffel (b. 1982, Portland, Maine) lives and works in Chicago. Upcoming and recent exhibitions include Artists Space, New York City; Cushion Works, San Francisco; Swiss Institute, New York City; Bridget Donahue, New York City; Fondazione Prada, Venice; Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown; Pied-à-Terre, San Francisco; Regards, Chicago; and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Raffel holds an MFA from the University of Chicago.
