I Can't Tell You Because I Can't Tell You

Curated by Gabriela Vainsencher
September 16th - November 12th
Hours: Thurs-Sun, 1-6pm
88 Eldridge Street

601Artspace is very pleased to present I Can’t Tell You Because I Can’t Tell You, the inaugural exhibition in our new space on the Lower East Side, featuring work from:

Tacita Dean
Constance DeJong
Thomas Demand
Christian Marclay
Roee Rosen
Roman Signer
Kerry Tribe

Installation views
Read the extended curator's guide to the exhibition
Read more about the events with Constance DeJong, Tacita Dean, and Roee Rosen


Curator's statement:

“What is clear and concise can't deal with reality, for to be real is to be surrounded by mystery”. James Joyce

I Can't Tell You Because I Can't Tell You deals with the inherent problem of shaping human experience into a linear story. Reality, as it is happening, is an overwhelming nonlinear smear: past, present, and future interlace, events mix with emotions, and focus shifts from one thing to another. Maybe this is why people have invented stories in which effects have causes, things happen for a reason, and narrators can be trusted to tell a story straight, with a beginning, middle and end – and in that order.

The artists in this exhibition, however, explore the limitations, flaws, and impossibilities of the narrative structure πthrough photography, video, film, sculpture and performance. They crack open the conventions of their fields to engage the questions: What happens if we agree that every story is an artificial construct that by definition distorts and lies? What if we acknowledge that no narrator is reliable? In lieu of solid narrative ground, this exhibition presents us with works that expose the machinery of story-making and then throw a wrench in the works.

- Gabriela Vainsencher

Image: Tacita Dean. JG (offset), 2013. Handmade offset • Archival Offset 250 gr, 11 13/16 x 30 1/2 in. each. 1 from set of 14. Courtesy of the Artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris, and Frith Street Gallery, London.