
Artist Statement
ERIDAN is the collaborative efforts of Eri King and Daniel Greer. Their conceptual framework explores the Everyday within the backdrop of America’s consumer culture. They utilize rigorous artistic practices by means of labor intensive handmade executions as a simile to the ritualistic nature of consumer culture habits. Combined with their use of disposable material such as snack bags, plastic, or detritus they approach solutions of upcycling and value creation while also touching on questions of beauty within banality and waste.
In their most recent installation A4 Effort, these new works on paper are enlargements of ordinary “blank” surfaces that exist in our everyday lives such as spiral bound college ruled paper, graph paper, or a blank photoshop canvas. These objects are meticulously reproduced by hand to an enlargement of 4.5:1 (38”x50”) as a towering indication of itself. As a body of work the structure of creativity itself is revealed, and posits that the creative freedom of a “blank slate” is formed firstly by the implemented parameters of a society. For example, the structure of ruled paper provides an orderly system for language to exist visually as information, which is analogous to the goals of conceptual art. Yet, while conceptual art suggests the idea is more important than the art, ERIDAN pulls back one more layer to look at the structure of an idea itself. With nods to both Sol Lewitt and Claes Oldenburg, these pieces quickly become work about work; art for art. ERIDAN hopes that in making the Everyday into Art, their viewer will also have the freedom to look at their everyday as Art and in doing so will be able to look past the preconceived structures that we allow to dictate our lives.
With the rise of digital technology, our information systems have rapidly dematerialized leading to the exchange of information existing increasingly within this digital realm. By dressing the gallery in a digital blank canvas, we rematerialize the platform of a contemporary open discourse where it’s occupants are encouraged to contemplate ideas of freedom, mindfulness, agency, and identity. As these digital systems become more complex and less comprehensible, it becomes necessary to examine the systems themselves to understand our active roles within them.
Biography
Eri and Daniel became aware of each other through the internet early in 2015. Immediately acknowledging their similar platforms of art making, they formed a partnership and began producing collaborative works and developing the conceptual framework which would make up ERIDAN. Their initial body of work was debuted in March of 2016 at Hunter’s MFA Spring Open Studios and soon after invited to exhibit as part of “What Are You Trying to Say” at SVA’s CP Projects Gallery in Chelsea. In August 2016 ERIDAN exhibited their first solo show, an expanded collection of work titled “Extra Value” at the Hunter MFA Studios in Tribeca.
Eri received her BFA in Studio Art from University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2011. Afterwards she exhibited extensively in Las Vegas and co-founded/ran 5th Wall Gallery and Project Space. In 2013 she received the Jackpot Grant from the Nevada Arts Endowment for her solo exhibition at the Winchester Gallery. Also in 2013 Las Vegas Weekly rewarded her “Best Artist (Emerging)” in their annual Awards. In 2015 she moved to New York City to pursue a MFA degree at Hunter College.
Daniel received his BA in New Media: Film from Fairfield University in 2010. In 2011 he moved to New York City to work under Michael Weber, an architectural photographer which would bring him to over 40 cities across 8 countries. His first solo show was in 2012 as part of Bushwick Open Studios and he continues to exhibit in group shows across Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 2013 he became a core member of the Brooklyn Collage Collective whose aim is to push the broadening definition of collage through exhibitions, events, and dialogues.