Rob Andrews

Artist Statement

I am drawn to performance as one of our oldest forms of storytelling. The fear. Blood and spit--the susurration of gain and loss beyond language, beyond objects. I'm afraid we'll lose this art, or it will change so much we'll forget the stink of each other.

I enact rituals and tell stories using my body and the bodies of others. If stories aren't re-told and distorted, they petrify. I steal from tradition, religious practice, and from my collaborators and get their stories wrong on purpose in order to make them right in another way.

My practice involves personal intervention into the muck of inherited mythology, public actions, and volunteer and forced collaborations. I try to join hands and muddy the waters we stand in because, after all, they are our waters.

selected performances/exhibitions:

Void Door for Ben Vautier for Yves Klein
Group Show, Flux This
Performance
Museum of Modern Art, NYC 
March 25, 2011

Be Void
Group Show, Flux This
Performance
Museum of Modern Art, NYC 
March 24, 2011

Cusp (Invited Participant)
Performance
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NYC 
Performer in William Pope.L's "Cusp" performance 
"landscape + object + animal"
May 10, 2010

Good Morning Song (Please Join Hands and Sing Along)
Performance
Grace Exhibition Space, NYC 
April 2, 2010

Assembly
Performance
English Kills Gallery (in conjunction with SITE Festival)
March 6, 2010

Sehnsucht
Performance Documentation and Artist Writings 
Online Artist Project
Launch: January 2010

Clean Dobill
Performance (in collaboration with Peter Dobill, Actionist)
Clean Humans Series. Gowanus Studio Space
January 23, 2010

Fountain Art Fair
Performance documentation presented by Grace Exhibition Space
December 3-6, 2009, Miami, FL

Gowanus Minotaur
Performance
Gowanus Studio Space, NYC
September 26, 2009

Tompkins Square Minotaur
Performance
40*PHI Art in the Parks, NYC
November 1, 2008

English Kills Minotaur
Performance
English Kills Gallery, NYC
August 16, 2008

Maximum Perception
Installation of performance relics and video
Group Show. English Kills Gallery, NYC
Aug. 16-September 1, 2008

Exit Minotaur
Performance
Exit Art, NYC 
June 16 + 23, 2007

Hospital Mountain
Performance
Exit Art, NYC
Jan. 20 + 27, 2007

Water Project (Feet Clean)
Performance
Exit Art, NYC
June 3 + 10, 2006

The Studio Visit
Video
Group Show, Exit Art, NYC
January 7-March 25, 2006

Praying Project
Performance
Exit Art, NYC 
April 15, 16, and 17, 2005

Your Big Buddy
Publishing project, performance
L Magazine 
April 27-September 27, 2005

Exit Art Clean
Performance
Exit Reconstruction Biennial. Group Show. Exit Art. March 8- 
May 29, 2003

365 Secrets to Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent
Performance, sculpture
Rivington Arms, NYC 
September 1, 2002-Sept. 1, 2003

Emerging Artists Show
Performance, sculpture
Group Show. HERE Gallery, NYC
August 2002

Jumping in a Pair of Air Jordans 1,000,000 times
Performance
Location variable
Ongoing

professional:

Teacher, NYC Department of Education
September 2005-Current

Personal Assistant to Artist William Pope.L
1999-2001, New York, NY and Lewiston, ME

education:

Pace University, New York, NY
M.S., Education

Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 
B.A. June 2001 Major in English, Concentration in Creative Writing.

awards:

Senseney Memorial Award. Given to graduating student who has shown outstanding creative ability and promise in writing. June 2001.