Introduction

Nathan Carter’s third solo exhibition at Esther Schipper is a collaboration with artists Matthew Ronay and Justin Beal, costume designer Daphne Javitch and a poster made by Paul Elliman.

Nathan Carter’s mobile RADIO THREE consists of radio antennae that receive and broadcast various messages, signals and frequencies. The two wall-mounted works also show different communications systems in simplified form, like twittering birds perched on twigs. The collaborative pieces mark out the setting for Carter’s works. With Daphne Javitch, he developed the antenna-like sculpture GESU MARIA!!! WHAT AN ADVENTURE! that includes a range of figures and materials including steel, paper, wood and textiles. Justin Beal’s MONTAG TO FREITAG is a series of hand-made collage posters that document the setting up of the exhibition, adding up to a framed wall newspaper. Hung in the window of the gallery, the large-format poster designed by Paul Elliman with the title of the exhibition acts as an interface between institution and visitors.

Nathan Carter’s works are characterized by the multiple layering of different systems. He combines complex communications systems with references to twentieth-century U.S. cultural history, especially American Modernism, which he translates into a simplified formal idiom. The title gives clues to their origins. THREE ON THE TREE is an expression from hot rod culture—the transformation of pre-WW2 automobiles into racing cars by stripping down and installing a more powerful motor. IN THE LIGHT OF THE DARK BLACK NIGHT is a line from the Beatles song Blackbird, written by Paul McCartney as a reaction to the racial unrest in the United States in the spring of 1968 and released on the band’s legendary White Album.

At the opening, Nathan Carter and Matthew Ronay will perform as Final Run iNs, an ongoing music and sculpture project. The concert space will be left for the duration of the exhibition, forming the central work within this cooperative band project.