Show Description

In Hostipitality, Misha Ilin investigates our laws of hospitality in relation to the practice of hostility through the situation of an auction. By constructing a metaphor of unlimited hospitality with respect to the last ultimately free resource, air, the artist seeks to problematize its cultural and socio-economic reading within our biopolitical context. The exhibition will open with an auction to define the price of the air in the space of the gallery and its tentative owner; the results of the auction will also determine the laws of hospitality that will obtain within the gallery space throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Air is the main element of the exhibition both formally and conceptually. Air is introduced into the exposition through various objects that inform the viewer of the air’s presence or of its absence. Ilin seeks to highlight this contrast by creating an environment of celebration with objects that transfer or contain air in different forms, be it sparkling wine or balloons gradually deflating over the duration of the show, staged in opposition to x-ray lightboxes and screens that illuminate images of dystopian or extra-terrestrial environments in which air is absent or in which one’s rights to the use of the air were deprived.

The exhibition opening will take place from 6 to 8 pm on Saturday, August 7th, with the auction event starting promptly at 7pm. RSVPs appreciated but not required. Inadequate Lighting is located at 915 Saint Paul St, Apt 1F. Ring bell at left for entry.

Bio

Misha Ilin (b. 1985, Protvino/Moscow) is a mixed-media artist currently based in Washington, DC. Through the use of mundane materials from the domestic environment as well as a visual vocabulary of situation-based practices, Ilin explores the everyday exchanges that structure our social lives and the resonances of those exchanges in the given biopolitical context. His installations, instructions, and social sculptures render an existing regimented environment and comment on matters of mundane labor, the value of exchange, social roles, shame, and inequality. Ilin’s most recent work takes the form of instruction-based practices responding to the experience of confinement.

Misha received a Master’s in Mathematics and Informatics from the National University of Science and Technology in Moscow, Russia. In 2016 he moved to the United States from Russia to receive his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Ilin’s recent exhibitions include order of things, Homme Gallery, DC, The Decameron, New Release, NY, and For the Love of Material, Terrault Gallery, Baltimore, MD.