Noah Barker

Divergence Motor/Albatross Alarm
Prologue

October 3 - November 1, 2015
Opening reception October 3rd, 7 to 9PM


First Continent is pleased to present for its inaugural exhibition a solo presentation by Noah Barker, which will serve the dual purpose of a prologue for the gallery's future activities.
Installation began with an interruption. A stoppage was called to halt the gallery's renovation. The pause was implemented with withdraw. The storefront is now sheathed in print news, updated often to keep up with an exhibition-long subscription. Within this seam, a prologue is introduced as preliminary discourse. A mise-en-scène of not a long time ago, not in a galaxy far far away is described in a scrolling text. The science fiction film to follow hasn't been produced, yet it will center on activities, as the video describes, in spaces of representation within a hyper-present.
The title of the prologue, and objects significant to the unfolding plot, were developed in recent texts produced by the artist. Divergence Motor is termed in an interview with Alex Mackin-Dolan that accompanies that artist's concurrent exhibition at David Lewis, New York, while the temporal crisis of the Albatross Alarm draws from Facility and Narrative, a recently published text in 'Good Times and Nocturnal News' for "TRUST, Copenhagen Art Festival." The prologue's soundtrack is Fleetwood Mac's 1968 single Albatross.
Noah Barker is an artist living and working in New York.

View of the gallery across the street; the windows are covered in pink-tinted newspaper

Wide shot of the gallery shows unfinished drywall; A large TV monitor sits on the floor in the foreground, and cushions dot the back of the space

Facing toward the door, pink light filters through the windows and words float across the screen

The windowsills are full of construction refuse: buckets of joint compound, tools, boxes, and a case of beer

A ladder leans against the wall in the corner behind the screen

Behind the screen, two speakers are wired with copper wire

Buckets of joint compound, tools, and Amazon packaging sit in front of a window lined with Financial Times newspaper

A grey ikea cushion sits on the floor

Financial Times newspaper overlaps to cover the window