Florian Slotawa at Arthouse

The concept behind Florian Slotawa's One After The Other at Arthouse sounds really ridiculous and stupid: instead of bringing art into
Arthouse, Slotawa altered the interior architecture by adding new
partitions, creating a succession of rooms with bare white walls and
building a staircase that lets you take a peek at the mythical second
floor. That's all he actually did.

So by now, some of you (fanny pack i'm looking at you) are probably
preparing molotov cocktails of vitriol, accusing the artist of
hollowness, of being "at best textbook and at worst calamitously
mediocre," you might "wish you'd never lived, period" to see this
abomination. But then you'd just come off as reactionary, shrill,
nearsighted and close-minded (at best). True, the old defense of "you
just don't get it" is pretty old and stale, but let's be honest: if
everybody "got it" and fantastic art was everywhere, a lot of us
wouldn't care, and this website probably wouldn't exist.

But what did he accomplish? One of the bravest and most sublime shows
I've ever seen at Arthouse. Slotawa used the building itself as his
material, as his medium of choice. The fact that a somewhat contrived
concept begets such an immersive and eye-opening experience is what
separates Slotawa from the throngs of Sculpture MFA's who nail Big Macs
to 2x4s and call it a show.

Make sure you look at the artist books and catalogs available at the
front desk of the gallery, it might help you enjoy the show a lot more. As with most things, context is everything.

I want to send a big shout-out to new Arthouse curator Elizabeth
Dunbar. Slotawa's show is her first for the Austin's finest downtown
space and what a first it is! I'm really looking forward to her
future shows. Cheers to her!