André Viana is pleased to announce Delay. This exhibition includes a selection of Rudolf Stingel’s abstract tulle silver paintings along with Seth Price’s vacuum-formed reliefs and aluminum panels.

The Duchampian notion of “delay” comes from exploring the impact of mechanical reproduction in the definition of an artwork. With every new piece, a conceptual gap occurs between the original and its reproduction. The new piece refers less to itself than to another pre-existing object, which brings forth a “delay” in the valuation of the work and holds off the viewer’s reception of the message.

Seth Price often relies on objects and symbols of universal access. The commonplace image of two hands and a key feels familiar as it appears like a logo against a golden background. This is how, at times, Price’s icons take hold of the pieces entirely. The work becomes mostly about what it represents, about what it evokes in the viewer, his own recollections of an exchange of keys. At other times, the symbol is lost into the form’s own angles. By disassociating form and substance, the printed shape represents nothing but itself. The rope becomes a line, a scribble; the act of handing keys just an inkblot on shiny metal. In this state of abstraction, Price’s works interact with Stingel’s silver abstract paintings on view, which call to mind the formulation of Instructions (1989,) a step-by-step handbook detailing the process of making such paintings.

By setting down a manual, Stingel guides the potential reproductions, which affect how we view the original work. These highly mechanical directions allow the new piece to retain Stingel’s “aura,” while at the same time delaying the awareness of authorship and the act of painting. Seth Price’s images behave similarly when appropriated through packaging, producing, reframing, and distribution. By means of these specific strategies, Price introduces a delay in the viewer’s response to the familiar image, proposing slowness as the course of action against the contemporary mandate of speed.