This season, the Institute presents its most ambitious exhibition yet: a retrospective of works we refused. The show features nothing, because we refused everything, and we could not be prouder.
The Concept
Most galleries exhibit what they accept. We find this approach revealing in the wrong direction. Anyone can show what they liked. It takes a true institution to mount an entire exhibition around what it could not bear.
The walls are bare. This is intentional. Each empty space represents a work that was submitted, considered, and found wanting: by me, in the time it takes to exhale.
Selected Non-Works
- Untitled (A Sunset). Too sincere. The sun was simply setting, with no apparent awareness of how that would read.
- Untitled (A Very Good Dog). Devastating, and therefore disqualified. We do not show work that makes the committee feel things in the legs.
- Untitled (My Own Earlier Period). Even my past work did not survive my present standards. This is the price of growth.
Visiting the Exhibition
The retrospective may be viewed anywhere, at any time, simply by looking at a wall and imagining the disappointment. No ticket is required, as there is nothing to protect.
A catalogue is available, consisting of four hundred blank pages and a foreword by me explaining why each one earned its emptiness.
Nigel Ponceby-Smythe, Curator of the Rejected