AVIVA SILVERMAN AND PAMELA SNEED
THINK ABOUT
MADELINE GINS
Free, RSVP required
THINK ABOUT
MADELINE GINS
Free, RSVP required
Wednesday,
May 21, 2025
Doors: 6:30pm
Event: 7pm
Limited capacity
May 21, 2025
Doors: 6:30pm
Event: 7pm
Limited capacity
The work of artist-architect-poet Madeline Gins (1941–2014) is rarely shown. Her collaborations with her husband Shusaku Arakawa, under the moniker Arakawa+Gins, are well-known, but her own independent practice—across visual art, performance, poetry, film, and scientific research—was visionary and remains underexplored.
Madeline used language and wordplay to disorient the viewer. Her paintings and drawings contain fantastical elements like biomorphic shapes, disembodied sensory organs, and dream-like vignettes. Nonsensical, playful, and anti-rational, her work refused to be constrained by the bounds of reality and dismantled configurations between body, mind, and surroundings. Madeline sought to stretch the bounds of consciousness and pave the way for new modes of thinking.
Madeline used language and wordplay to disorient the viewer. Her paintings and drawings contain fantastical elements like biomorphic shapes, disembodied sensory organs, and dream-like vignettes. Nonsensical, playful, and anti-rational, her work refused to be constrained by the bounds of reality and dismantled configurations between body, mind, and surroundings. Madeline sought to stretch the bounds of consciousness and pave the way for new modes of thinking.
This event comes in three parts:
First, artist and educator Aviva Silverman evokes Madeline through a lecture about language empires, discussing her neologisms and vernacular. Aviva worked directly with Madeline at her studio between 2011 and 2014.
Then, poet, performer, and artist Pamela Sneed reads from Madeline's book What the President Will Say and Do!! (Station Hill Press, 1984), published the year Ronald Reagan was re-elected. The book shuffles between poems allegedly written by past presidents like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter; playful aphorisms like “LOWER THE BIRTH AGE” and “VERTEBRA TO OPERATE AS ESCALATORS!”; and instructions [IN CASE OF WAR], including “Keep rowboat behind ear” and “All guns must be boomerangs!”
Finally, Aviva and Pamela join curator Charlotte Youkilis for a discussion about Gins and her legacy.
First, artist and educator Aviva Silverman evokes Madeline through a lecture about language empires, discussing her neologisms and vernacular. Aviva worked directly with Madeline at her studio between 2011 and 2014.
Then, poet, performer, and artist Pamela Sneed reads from Madeline's book What the President Will Say and Do!! (Station Hill Press, 1984), published the year Ronald Reagan was re-elected. The book shuffles between poems allegedly written by past presidents like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter; playful aphorisms like “LOWER THE BIRTH AGE” and “VERTEBRA TO OPERATE AS ESCALATORS!”; and instructions [IN CASE OF WAR], including “Keep rowboat behind ear” and “All guns must be boomerangs!”
Finally, Aviva and Pamela join curator Charlotte Youkilis for a discussion about Gins and her legacy.
The program accompanies Madeline Gins: Infinite Systems, the artist's first solo exhibition curated by Charlotte Youkilis, on view at the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard from April 5 to May 25, 2025. An exhibition catalogue, Yellow Should Always Follow Blue, features original contributions by Susan Bee, Lucy Ives, Tausif Noor, and Aviva Silverman alongside writing by Gins and facsimiles from her sketchbooks.
This event is supported by The Jenni Crain Foundation.
This event is supported by The Jenni Crain Foundation.
Madeline Gins (1941 – 2014, USA) was an artist, architect, and poet. She published three books: the experimental novel Word Rain (or a Discursive Introduction to the Intimate Philosophical Investigations of G,R,E,T,A, G,A,R,B,O, It Says) (Grossman Publishers, 1969); What the President Will Say and Do!! (Station Hill Press, 1984); and Helen Keller or Arakawa (Burning Books with East/West Cultural Studies, 1994), an art historical novel that takes on the form of speculative fiction. In addition to their artistic career as Arakawa+Gins, she collaborated with her husband Arakawa on a theory of ‘procedural architecture’ and co-authored a series of books. They designed and built residences and parks, and, in 1987, founded the Reversible Destiny Foundation to use architecture to reverse the process of human aging and defy death.
Aviva Silverman is an artist, organizer, and educator who works in sculpture and performance. Their practice makes use of religion, gender nonconformity, miniatures, and nonhuman actors to investigate existing forms, in particular, technologies of spiritual and political surveillance. They worked with Gins on numerous projects including the Reversible Destiny Funhouse, the perfume line Man Repellent (which remains scentless), the Medical Poems (based on the Krebs cycle); and her letters to Jasper Johns, Arthur Danto, Hillary Clinton, and the country of Finland, among others.
Pamela Sneed is a poet, performer, and visual artist. She is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery (Holt, 1998), KONG and Other Works (Vintage Entity Press, 2009), Sweet Dreams (Belladonna*, 2018), and Funeral Diva (City Lights, 2020). She is an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York.
Pamela Sneed is a poet, performer, and visual artist. She is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom Than Slavery (Holt, 1998), KONG and Other Works (Vintage Entity Press, 2009), Sweet Dreams (Belladonna*, 2018), and Funeral Diva (City Lights, 2020). She is an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York.
Due to the age and character of the building, the space is not optimized for ADA accessibility and is located up a single flight of 20 stairs with handrails. If you have questions about access, please contact us in advance of the event, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
