Exhibitions

Special Special hosted a pop-up sale of Japanese Workman boots in shoes, featuring unisex hi-top, low-top, canvas, rubber, steel-toe, and slip-on footwear starting at $50.

Japanese construction workers’ shoes are known for their flexibility, durability, and barefoot-feeling comfort. Tokyo boasts an entire subculture dedicated to the clothing of their high-rise steel workers and construction tradesmen. Their free flowing pants and practical footwear have become fashionable among all construction trades. The pop-up sale celebrates the hard work and high style of these Japanese workers!

Lu Zhang, Tim Simonds, and Aaron Lehman perform a public reading of Peter Handke's play Kaspar (1967), collaboratively reconceived and read through a single translucent paper copy. Playing at reading. Excerpt from Kaspar: “They speak a text that is not theirs. They do not speak to make sense but to show that they are playing at speaking, and do so with great exertion of their voices even when they speak softly... He utters a single sentence over and over: I want to be a person like somebody else was once.”

The Frontiers Conference is a continuous series of performances that joins and highlights artists on the fringe of various artistic movements. Organized by Wildman Clab as part of their year-long events residency at Special Special.

“It is still taboo for a woman to be alone. To find her way. Sift through the world for herself. In a self-empowered fashion. The Deck of Character couldn't be a greater metaphor for our shifting times. It is run by a woman. And it is a game of intuition: one with no rules or defined winner. In my current solo road trip across the US, it saddens me to report that in most conversations with cops and older men, they often uncomfortably remark how I am doing this alone.”

Hannah Wnorowski, creator of The Deck of Character, is pleased to make her artist talk at Special Special the final stop on her current four month cross country road trip. She has spent the last year traveling around the US and Europe with her oracle where she has had hundreds of conversations with people and spent time listening to their synchronistic insights. 

The Deck of Character is a tool to guide you along your own hero's journey. It is designed to connect you with your inner wisdom and share it openly with those around you. Cross country road trips for Hannah has been her practice for the last 8 years to observe the symbolism in the world around us. The Deck of Character is an anthology of everything she has experienced and observed in travel and art making.

Hannah will be sharing her candid thoughts about her journey: what it means to use intuition, to heal, to play an oracle, to be in the world, and to follow one's own voice. And how all of this sits so beautifully in the uncertain times we find ourselves in today. Please join in on the conversation. It is sure to be fun.

For Talks to Me, Special Special hosts two editioned works by Tim Simonds: manna, a set of small rose leaf sculptures and Talks to Me, a scratch-game printed on a translucent paper. The two editions are presented amidst some trappings—a set of screens and guides. Talks to Me is made in collaboration with Seokhoon Choi, printed by Eric López, and released as Special Special Edition No. 31, part of a series of editioned works produced by an artist in partnership with Special Special.

Photo credits:
# 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 by Dario Lasagni
# 5, 9 by Wen-You Cai

The Frontiers Conference is a continuous series of performances that joins and highlights artists on the fringe movements. Organized by Wildman Clab,  as part of their yearlong events residency at Special Special.

Event 2019:02:10: I <3 U Always Forever is a performance by Robert Ouyang Rusli and Wo Chan including live music, audio recordings, and opportunities for audience participation and sharing on topics of time and memory as they relate to intimate relationships.