Leigh Davis: The Burrow (H.H.)
January 14th – Feb 8th, 2012
Opening Reception: January 14th, 7-9pm
“Now the truth of the matter – and one has no eye for that in times of great peril, and only by a great effort even in times when danger is threatening – is that in reality the burrow does provide a considerable degree of security, but by no means enough, for is one ever free from the anxieties inside it?” – Franz Kafka, The Burrow
Open Source Gallery is pleased to present The Burrow (H.H.), a new project from Brooklyn-based artist Leigh Davis. Davis works from photographs taken of an inhabited self-storage unit in New Mexico and uses materials found in the surrounding neighborhood. Her installation repurposes the gallery as a transitional living space in which the everyday artifacts of human existence take on a different meaning when encountered in a place not designed for habitation. In constructing The Burrow (H.H.) specifically for the gallery, Davis engages her ongoing interest of creating projects related to the opportunities and constraints presented by the sites in which they are located.
The title of the project is taken from “The Burrow,” a Kafka story told from the perspective of a compulsive character who describes with pride the concealed burrow he has built to protect himself. As the character elaborates on the details, however, the description grows more paranoid and fantastical, and ultimately the narrator becomes trapped, possessed by his own creation. Davis’s project similarly creates a state of curiosity and uneasiness, in which viewers are invited, through the objects presented, to reconstruct for themselves the life lived by the person who is not there. By restricting physical access to the space, the project relegates viewers to a voyeur position, prompting them to consider their own relationship to the imagined life inside.
Leigh Davis completed her MFA in photography at Concordia University and has been included in exhibitions at The Center for Urban Pedagogy and at the Storefront for Art and Architecture. She has received funding for projects through New York from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Puffin Foundation. Her photographic work has also been published in The New York Times Magazine.
