Jason Lazarus & Sean Ward: PDF-OBJECTS

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition at Mana Contemporary, Chicago, June 18–August 12, 2016.

Organized by artists Jason Lazarus (Florida) and Sean Ward (New York), the installation marked the debut exhibition of PDF-OBJECTS, a curated collection of artist-selected text-object pairings. The growing anthology, featuring over 50 artists from across the country, includes Alberto Aguilar, Basma Alsharif, Robert Burnier, Alex Chitty, Katy Cowan, Assaf Evron, Danny Giles, Gordon Hall, Sofia Leiby, Jose Lerma, Shana Lutker, Matt Morris, Gina Osterloh, Claire Pentecost, Tim Portlock, Josh Reames, Amanda Ross-Ho, Sanaz Sohrabi, Stephanie Syjuco, Tony Tasset, Jan Tichy, and Lori Waxman, among many others. Participating artists were asked to submit a single PDF of a text that has significantly impacted their practice, a description of a commonly available object, and instructions on how to pair the PDF and commonly available object for display and audience engagement.

PDF-OBJECTS is a guidebook for the exhibition, an invitation into the artist’s thinking and practice–an embodied library, a sculptural field–each object a footnote to the text, and vice versa. The design of the project encourages new moments of scholarship, pedagogy, and intimacy for the artists and audience(s).

Published by Mana Contemporary, 2016, softcover, 158 pages, 11 x 8.5 inches.