Press Release
Lisa Bateman, Installation
Arbor Vitae (what we want was free)
May 25 – June 10 2008
In this project, Bateman conflates the over-abundance of a lush grape arbor with the anachronistic and antiquated signage of the folk-painted Premier Veal building in one of the remaining grittier blocks of the Meatpacking District. The piece references the inundation and saturation of wealth in the area and at the same time playfully suggests the “greening” of grapes in a “red” slaughterhouse district which has emerged over the past fifteen years as one of the highest-priced residential and retail neighborhoods in the city.

Ruefully mocking the three hanging orbs of pawnshop logo history and the guileless simplicity of “Nature”, Bateman’s work situates itself with seamless irony among the high-end boutiques, high-rise hotels, luxe co-ops and condos, and current and abandoned wholesale meat packing plants of one of New York’s most fashionable districts.

Like an angelic halo hovering above the abandoned slaughterhouse of the soon-to-be demolished Premier Veal building, Bateman’s project seems to protect the nightly dreams of the homeless and transient few seeking “otherworldliness” at this crossroads of disappearing Manhattan.

# # #

Lisa Bateman is a New York City artist who explores site, community and response in her multi-material and dimensional Installation works. Projects have been located in both exhibition spaces and urban spaces, and are intended to explore, reflect and comment on the circumstances of public life and social spaces as reflected in local architecture and the changing destiny of cities. Her work aspires to be an excavation of meaning – political, social, cultural and personal -- focusing on the hidden historical and social-political expressions of representation.