FRONT International 2022 Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art
16 July - 02 October 2022
Akron Museum of Art
One South High Street
Akron, Ohio
Curated by Prem Krishnamurthy
Artists in exhibition: Abigail DeVille, Ahmet Öğüt, Alexandra Noel, Alexandria Couch, Allana Clarke, Alyssa Taylor Wendt, Andrea Carlson, Art Therapy Studio, Asad Raza, Audra Skuodas, Benedict Scheuer, Beni E. Kosh, Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff, Cassie Thornton, Chakaia Booker, Charmaine Spencer, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Cooking Sections ,Cory Arcangel, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Dansbana!, Devan Shimoyama, Dexter Davis, Diana Al-Hadid, Dominic Palarchio, Dr. Lady J, Every Ocean Hughes, Firelei Báez, Haseeb Ahmed, Hughie Lee-Smith, Isabelle Andriessen, Jace Clayton, Jacolby Satterwhite, Joe Namy, John Akomfrah, Judith Scott, Julie Mehretu, Jumana Manna, Jurriaan Andriessen, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Karel Martens, Langston Hughes, Laura Serejo Genes, La Wilson, Leigh Ledare, Lenka Clayton & Phillip Andrew Lewis, Linda D.L. Green, Loraine Lynn, Magali Reus, Maria Hassabi,, Martin Beck, Matt Eich, Michele Rizzo, Mika Tajima, Moyra Davey, Naeem Mohaiemen, Nicole Eisenman, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Nora Turato, On Kawara, Paul O'Keeffe, Pedro Zylbersztajn, Renée Green, Robert Reed, Sarah Oppenheimer & Tony Cokes, Scott Mars, Seuil Chung, Sonia Gomes, Suneil Sanzgiri, Tacita Dean, Theaster Gates, Tony Cokes, Tyler Mitchell, Wong Kit Yi, Yoshitomo Nara
Installation photos by Field Studios
Artforum
Ocula
Art in America
ARTnews
The Art Newspaper
Ruckus Journal
Hailing from a suburb of Detroit, Dominic Palarchio’s family runs a garage and his work often engages with the automotive industry. A wall hanging piece collaged together from stained rags, the red used by mechanics and the white by house cleaners, acknowledges the labor of maintenance through the traces it leaves behind. Suturing together the automotive and the domestic, the masculine and the feminine, Palarchio posits such labor as a type of craft, a daily practice, frequently overlooked but absolutely essential for societal function.
Presided over by Peanut, a political party icon carved out of petroleum coke (commonly referred to as petcoke), Palarchio’s constellation of assisted readymades addresses issues related to environmental classism. A byproduct of the oil refining process and a cheap alternative to coal, petcoke is a known ecological hazard. Palarchio uses it as a metonym for industrial pollution, juxtaposing it with household fixtures like filters and alarms, seemingly innocuous objects for most but which become critical survival tools for those living in areas with poor air and water quality. A carbon monoxide alarm is affixed to a filter from a humidifier, an appliance whose use has risen along with the incidence of asthma and other breathing ailments. A pair of egg shells sit delicately on top of a catalytic convertor—a car part used to reduce the toxicity of exhaust fumes and prized by thieves—a reminder of the distinctive smell that a malfunctioning one emits. A Brita water filter balances precariously above a splayed open section of oxidized copper pipe, a reminder that the local water supply can easily and unsuspectingly become polluted by industrial runoffs, as was the case most recently in Flint, Michigan.
Palarchio’s practice provides entry points into the lifeworlds of the American worker, whose laboring body is simultaneously exploited and made to bear the effects of what has been termed the “slow violence” of industrialization.
Wall text by Murtaza Vali