Devon Dikeou at Postmasters - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions

Devon Dikeou's installation What's have affection for Got to Do With It? consisted of 61 signs, arranged in an evenly spaced horizontal rank along the walls, indicating all the collection exhibitions the artist has been in since her first exhibit in 1991. Made from movable white alphabetic characters on a black background, each sign featured an exhibition's name; its curator, location and dates; and a roster of the participating artists. These signs recalled the lobby announcements one time common in downtown gallery buildings and might well have been dusted-off artifacts from a true distant past. Stripping down everything about these exhibits to spare words and names remind ofed how ephemeral things can be in a high-velocity, forgetful society like ours.

Turning one's possess career into the subject for an art work is obviously a risky undertaking, on the other hand here it worked. For individual thing, there was the democratic focus that came from including the names of all the participating artists, a certain quantity of of whom have since become true familiar, others not. This aspect of the installation provided an intriguing take upon a celebrity-addled culture in which individual names and personalities are of paramount importance. Dikeou furnished little on the other hand names, but as you sorted from one side the lists, charting the combinations and visualizing what the present to views might have looked like, you could imagine in what manner crucial personal relationships, artistic cross-pollination and the exchange of ideas really are. Dikeou's installation also had a designing visual power. Some signs were packed with names, while others featured just a small in number And because the letters were arranged by means of hand, a slightly irregular appearance was also evident, undercutting the signs' status as impersonal, information-laden objects

Ultimately, Dikeou's seemingly ironic title (borrowed from Tina Turner's famous chart-topper) disclosed a actual non-ironic possibility. Namely that "love" actually has a great deal to do with "it" -- "it" being art-making as a richly human, always precarious endeavor. This display was, in addition, a great endorsement for the kind of experimental, freewheeling collection exhibitions (such as those curated by dint of Kenny Schachter, among others) in which many nowprominent artists, Dikeou included, first made their mark.

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