The Museum of Neon Art presents the world premiere of “The Brain Without Organs: The Aporia of Care,” an exhibition of two large neon installations and a series of blacklight activated paintings by artist Warren Neidich. An opening reception was held on April 16, 2022, see below for additional events. The exhibition will run through September 25, 2022. Remember to confirm with gallery for up-to-date covid protocols and guidelines – (proof of vaccination and masks MAY be required).
The exhibition uses light and immersive installations to consider philosophical and conceptual questions around information, capitalism, and the evolution of the brain. Neidich’s works exist at the border zones of art, science and social justice. Over the past two decades, Neidich has applied neurological and aesthetic approaches to understanding humans’ evolving relationship with information technology. He has engaged these issues from the role of curator, writer, and artist. In 1996 he co-founded Artbrain.org and Journal of Neuroaesthetics. Now 26 years and many exhibitions, symposia, and anthologies later, Neidich’s works continue to question the evolving networks of control, surveillance, and information under capitalism and globalism and how they are redefining and reshaping systems of the brain. MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel states, “Neon is a technology invented at the turn of the 20th century as a tool of commerce and advertising. The bright shine of electrified noble gas still connects on a deep level with viewers both as material of commerce as well as an aesthetic tool, capturing attention, as well as eliciting wonder. Neidich uses neon light as a throughline in this exhibition to apply Marxist concepts about labor, production, and attention, as well as conjure the possibility of art as a source of awareness and emancipation from the attention economy.”
The title of the exhibition “Brain Without Organs” is inspired by a concept of “Body Without Organs”. This originated in the writings of Antonin Artaud and was expanded by philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. These thinkers advocated for an understanding of the body as something that is more than the sum of its parts, it is an unbounded entity full of potential which is able to affect and be affected by its surroundings. “The Brain Without Organs” explores how the brain is both located in the skull as well as an expansive socio-political entity, developing along with machine learning, big data, and social media.
The multimedia exhibition by Warren Neidich considers the brain as a biologically and socially constructed organ and art’s liberatory potential to reimagine it.
The Museum of Neon Art is open from Thursday-Saturday 12-7 and Sunday 12-5. Visitors to the museum will be able to view “Brain Without Organs,” MONA’s rotating permanent collection of signage and fine art, the Electric Lab, where MONA teaches classes and restores signs, as well as the newly opened outdoor exhibition space, the Sign Garden.
On view April 16, 2022 – September 25, 2022; In addition to the opening on May 7, 2022 from 5-7pm – there will be a Talk and Live Brain Demonstration With Dr. Jerry Siegel; Also on April 23, 2022, from 1-4pm a Family Workshop will allow participants to create black light artwork.
What: “The Brain Without Organs: The Aporia of Care,” Warren Neidich
Where: MONA, 216 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 90039
Website: https://store.neonmona.org
