JAMES LEE BYARS:
I CANCEL MY WORKS AT DEATH

FEBRUARY 7 – MAY 4, 2014

I Cancel All My Works at Death is the first comprehensive survey of the plays, actions, and performances of James Lee Byars (Detroit 1932 – Cairo 1997). Spanning the period from 1960 (when he created his first action in Kyoto, Japan) to 1981 (when de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam presented a year-long survey), the exhibition, which is titled after Byars’ now-famous speech act, adopts the premise that the artist and his work are better mis-remembered than re-experienced. I Cancel All My Works at Death therefore presents none of his actual performances; nor does it include objects made, owned, or used by him, nor vintage ephemera–with the exception of obituaries published in newspapers at the time of his death. What it does include are suits and costumes, scripts, theater posters, props, puppet videos, a detailed timeline, among other elements. It also includes new, un-authored solo actions and group events that will be carried out sparingly and intermittently during the run of the show.

The exhibition is curated by Triple Candie, a phantom-like institution that existed in Harlem as an alternative space from 2001 to 2010. Run by two art historians who now live in Philadelphia, Triple Candie produces exhibitions about art but devoid of it and realized without the involvement of artists. Recent projects include Epigraphe pour une preface: The Original is Unfaithful to the Copy (FRAC Le Plateau, Paris, 2013), Of the Siren and the Sky: The Life and Work of Michael Whipple (Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, 2013), and Maurizio Cattalan is Dead: Life and Work, 1960-2009 (Deste Foundation, Athens, 2010). At the request of Triple Candie, this exhibition has been dramaturged by Jens Hoffmann, MOCAD’s guest curator.