Voided
Ori Carino and Benjamin Armas
April 29 – May 27, 2017

12:57 AM, 2017
So you should view this fleeting world —
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream.
—Diamond Cutter Sutra (500 BC)

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 29, 6 PM.

Tapping into a new generation of artists who grew up in the East Village and who are steeped in its history and culture, Howl! Happening is pleased to present Voided by Ori Carino and Benjamin Armas. Voided includes Carino’s protest paintings series as well as several collaborative sculptures by Armas and Carino. The exhibition runs through May 27, 2017. For further information visit Howl! Happening.

Building sculptures with materials recovered from local tenement demolitions since 2006, Armas and Carino both grew up in the neighborhood at a time when it was undergoing rapid gentrification. Treating these works as “performance,” the artists intentionally change them by a process of ceremonial burning and dilapidation. “In this, we relate to buildings as metaphors for the physical, mental, and social body; racing towards an inevitable end, yet endowed with unlimited potential for catalyzing positive change,” says Armas.

Included in the show will be a daily performance with Carino repeatedly building up a brick wall only to tear it down. Also included are panel discussions, a new work by composer Jessie Montgomery, and additional events that illustrate the emotional impact of gentrification.

“By losing what once was, we gain the opportunity to discard preconceived notions, affirm our agency, and ‘represent’ the change we would like to manifest,” says Carino.

Howl! Happening: An Arturo Vega Project
6 East 1st Street (btw Bowery and 2nd Ave)
New York, NY 10003