According to the dictionary, the term “ephemera” refers to items originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity. While the three works featured below could technically be termed ephemera, their artistry and historical importance dispel any thoughts that they might be of fleeting interest. They are, in fact, important art works from the early 1980s.
Two of these works connect to the Times Square Show (TSS), a ground breaking exhibition organized by the artist group Collaborative Projects Inc (COLAB) in 1980. The third object relates to the alternative space ABC No Rio, also connected with COLAB. You can learn more about the context of these works at Gallery 98’s earlier online exhibition Collecting COLAB: Ephemera, Photography & Multiples, 1978-1985.
Times Square Show, Jane Dickson and Charlie Ahearn, silk-screen poster, 1980
Times Square Show, Jane Dickson and Charlie Ahearn, poster, silkscreen and paint on paper, 1980. Size: 22.5 x 28.5 Inches
The Times Square Show mounted in a former massage parlor on 41st Street in June 1980, is now credited with helping to initiate a diverse, multicultural era that was responsive to real-life issues. This collaborative silk-screen poster by the artist couple Jane Dickson (drawing) and Charlie Ahearn (printing), stands as a definitive record of this now historic exhibition.
Times Square Show, Coleen Fitzgibbon and Robin Winters (X & Y Offer), fragment of wallpaper, 1980
Coleen Fitzgibbon and Robin Winters (X & Y Offer), “Gun, Money, Plate,” wallpaper fragment, Times Square Show, offset print, 1980.
Size: 31 x 22 Inches
“The Money, Love, and Death” room was the most distinctive section of the TSS in part because it was completely covered by the wallpaper created by Coleen Fitzgibbon and Robin Winters who were at the time working together under the name X & Y Offer. After the exhibition closed, a few participants ripped off sections of the wallpaper as souvenirs of the event.
Kiki Smith, ABC No Rio The Island of Negative Utopia, silk-screen poster from the Kitchen, 1983
Kiki Smith, ABC No Rio The Island of Negative Utopia, silk-screen poster from the Kitchen, 1983. Size: 17.5 x 22.5 Inches
Around the same time as the TSS, artists affiliated with COLAB were given use of an abandoned, city-owned building. The 1985 book ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery captures the early history of this still-functioning alternative art space. Kiki Smith’s silkscreen poster was created for a 1983 exhibition about No Rio at the Kitchen. Joseph Nechvatal’s phrase “Island of Negative Utopia,” aptly captures the spirit of the art renaissance taking place at the time in the largely abandoned wasteland of the LES
