About the Exhibition
New York-based artists Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe have created a site-specific sculptural installation that is also a functional hotel room, offering 21c guests a completely immersive art experience. The work, called Asleep in the Cyclone, is an evolution of the artists’ previous large-scale architectural collages, and extends their exploration of historical and narrative fictions, rogue science, and the contemporary urban environment, based on the counter-cultural artists’ community from the mid-1960s known as Drop City. Freeman and Lowe have transformed aspects of the Drop City design practice and philosophy to construct a room that exists in stark contrast to its time and surroundings. Constructed entirely of re-purposed barn wood, custom textiles, original sculptures, and other artworks, the room features a domed ceiling sculpture that recalls the geodesic designs of American architect Buckminster Fuller. Multi-purpose furniture and surfaces designed by the artists are complemented with an antique writing desk, rocking chair, and record player. A selection of records, chosen by Freeman and Lowe, is included, as are artist-designed blankets, linens, and other curated components. A custom-built cabinet of curiosities includes collages, books, and small sculptures by the artists. Overnight guests Asleep in the Cyclone or awake and lounging, listening to records, and otherwise exploring this immersive artwork, will experience a parallel reality that inspires the senses. As British artist Liam Gillick writes, Freeman and Lowe’s multi-sensory work “reconnects the mind-blowing nature of wonder to the everyday experience.”
Special amenities include:
- Record player and artists’ selected records
- Cabinet of curiosities featuring sculptures, books, and other works by Freeman and Lowe
- Rocking chair and antique writing desk
- Curated blankets and other linens
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Artist duo Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe have been collaborating since 2007. Drawing on a series of historical and fictional narratives, their large-scale spatial collages reimagine culture through subjects such as rogue science, psychedelic drugs, mega-conventions, utopian communes, and hypertrophic urbanism. Asleep in the Cyclone is an evolution of the artists’ previous installations Stray Light Grey (Marlborough, Chelsea, New York, 2012), Hello Meth Lab in the Sun (Marfa Ballroom, 2008), Black Acid Coop (Deitch Projects, New York, 2010), and Bright White Underground (Country Club Gallery, Los Angeles, 2009). In 2013, Freeman and Lowe were selected to create a site-specific installation at Art Basel’s Unlimited exhibition. Like Asleep in the Cyclone, Artichoke Underground continues Freeman and Lowe’s groundbreaking explorations of architecture as immersive sculpture.
Jonah Freeman was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and earned a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Justin Lowe was born in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from Amherst College, and earned an MFA from Columbia University in New York. The artists live and work in New York City. Freeman and Lowe have been featured in the The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker and more.
