He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

-Excerpt from Mending Wall by Robert Frost 1914

Mending Wall is the title of the latest exhibition at The

Pit curated by Alexis Rose. This is the second exhibition

in an on-going series put together by outside curators and

artists at The Pit. Rose has selected a group of artists

ranging from emerging to established from Los Angeles

to New York. The exhibition takes its name and thematic

inspiration from the poem by Robert Frost.

Frost’s Mending Wall (1914), is the story of the yearly

meeting of two neighbors to restore the stone wall dividing

their properties. The two charectors have polarizing views

on the wall— one questions its necessity, while the other

is dedicated to the tradition. The poem deals with two

central themes—barrier building / segregation (why do we

put up walls, and what does a barrier really represent?)

and the persistence of action amidst a flawed practice

(the wall continues to fall apart each year, and yet they

continue their annual meeting and mending of the wall).

Like the poem, the exhibition explores concepts of

construction, examination, oppositions, purpose,

relationships, and repetition.

The artworks in the exhibition investigate borders and

divisions in construction, often in playful and humorous

tone. The works echo poem, as they all dissect and

analyze the mechanics of construction. Many of the

works see construction as a necessary, pervasive action,

however flawed, and explore themes of persistence.

Other works were created to specifically interact with the

gallery space, inherently challenging borders or “walls”

of the object. Rose has incorporated the gallery space’s

history and the concept of the “machine shop” as one

of the major curatorial themes for the show.

The building the gallery is housed in was originally an auto

mechanic’s shop in the 1930’s. Later the building was

split up into small spaces occupied by various businesses.

The small bay that has been converted into The Pit was

the first shop for American Drill Bushings Company

(now an international Corporation) before becoming a

working shop for a machinist (our landlord) for nearly

30 years until it was converted into an exhibition space.

The artists chosen to participate in Mending Wall, Leonor

Atunes, Alisa Baremboym, Huma Bhabha, Kate Bonner,

Rachel Harrison, John Houck, Jake Kean Mayman, Ann

Greene Kelly, Sean Kennedy, David Shull, all have artistic

practices that revolve around dissecting, and analyzing

the mechanics and functions of objects and some make

very specific references to construction. The works

resonate with ad hoc, tinkerer mentality of the mechanic.

These non-uniform works’ unity depend on clearly divisible

parts. The artists presented are keenly aware of the

hyper-mediated history of contemporary practice.

However, they break past exhaustion or simple ironic

awareness to a mode of production that embraces

division as a method of working through essentialist

anxieties.