Artist Biography

A N D R E W K R A S N O W

Artist Biography "Andrew Krasnow has made a body of work which concerns the nature of the human condition so profoundly that many viewers are profoundly moved, and many others are profoundly outraged. The issue at hand is the choice of materials used in creating artworks about what it is to be a human being today, and at other times in the past, and perhaps what that will mean in the not too distant future. This is the job that we ask artists to do; artists travel to places we can not imagine by ourselves to new and distant zones of origin, of otherness, and then they come back and tell us the tale of that journey, reflecting on both the travels and the traveler, which includes now us, the audience, tucked away in their backpack. Usually they do this silently, showing us world views and dimension of which perhaps we have no previous inkling: but it seems that the artists are most successful, that is, are seen as most masterful, when they tell us something new about the human life which we already know so very, very well. Artists are able to do this by adopting a new and different perspective, usually achieved through their own intensely personal struggle with difficult truths to which finally they dare to give form." (Tobey Crockett, In Search of Human Materialism).
	Artist Andrew Krasnow is among the first artists to directly incorporate human materials into his work. In his 1992 exhibition U.S. Habitus, at the Stux Gallery in the Soho district of New York City, Krasnow's installation included a fetus in a glass container cradled in an oversized sling; a placenta wrapped in a wreath; an hourglass containing shredded skin instead of sand; and 26 flags made of human skin--including the artist's own--painted in red, white and blue. Prior to U.S. Habitus, Krasnow's work Flag Poll had been a subject of controversy at the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati. Curator Jan Riley had courageously chosen the work for inclusion in the group show Mechanika. Flag Poll was a large scale sculpture which Krasnow planned to debut in Cincinnati in 1991. The sculpture incorporated was a 6' x 4' American flag which was created out of salted, treated, and stitched human skin. Citing the ongoing war in the Persian Gulf, the Contemporary Arts Center decided to reverse its position on showing the work. The Center wrote a disclaimer that was posted at the exhibition and appeared in the catalog. The Center stated the following: "We had initially agreed to show Flag Poll, and we deliberated for a very long time before we finally determined that Flag Poll was so provocative that we could not show it without the Center preparing for the possibility that the piece could be seriously misinterpreted." Eventually agreeing to a disclaimer, Krasnow substituted Flag Poll with another work, Core Texts of the Mind, that also involved body parts. He then went out and had a ten-inch patch of skin cut from his waist to make one of the fifty stars, specifically the seventeenth star representing Ohio, and attached it to the flag in question. In 1992, unhindered by public funding, private galleries Josh Baer, Stux, and Max Protech all exhibited Krasnow's flags. A solo show, U.S. Habitus was the most extensive of these exhibits with its varied use of human materials. Gallery owner Stefan Stux, who displayed U. S. Habitus, stated he felt that the gallery had a moral obligation to show the work.
	Controversy found Krasnow again when, unlike the painted flags, an unpainted study was selected for exhibition which clearly showed the skin in a natural state. 48 Star Flag/Study for What They Want #5 was included as part of the 1996 touring exhibit Old Glory: The American Flag in Contemporary Art curated by David Rubin from the Phoenix Museum of Art and organized by the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. The artist insisted he obtained the skin through legal means. Krasnow also acknowledged the work's "obvious association" with "the Nazi lampshade atrocities of the Second World War." Curator David Rubin described the work as "very innovative. His use of material is progressive. He's breaking new ground." In 1996, the Old Glory exhibit reached the Phoenix Museum of Art. It created quite a stir. Then, Senator Bob Dole, R-Kansas, claimed that the museum was "hiding behind the lofty language of free speech in order to profit from debasing America." Over 300 demonstrators gathered at the Museum to protest the works of art. Although there was public outcry, there was also public support. The Museum reported that since the opening and duration of the exhibit, attendance increased 1,000 a week, membership increased, and the donation box offerings increased by 40%.
	The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supported Growth (1991) is a massive structure where the person lies in the center of the platform and tugs on a cord composed of braided rawhide made from human umbilical cords, comparable "to pulling oneself into the world," says the artist. As the participant pulls on the cords, seven box-like segments move upwards to form walls that give the illusion of growth. If the participant continues to pull on the cords, the columns eventually enclose the person. The participant remains enclosed and secure within the installation as long as he or she continues to grasp the umbilical cord. Once the cord is released, the work collapses back to its original state. Engagement with the sculpture is intended to last 50 seconds. Each interior panel of the installation was covered with agar then seeded with microbiological materials producing live molds, spores and other forms of "growth."
	Core Texts of the Mind (1988), like Growth, is an interactive sculpture which is also an amazing engineering accomplishment. Exhibited as part of a group show the Drowned World, it was curated by Tom Finkelpearl and organized by P.S. 1 Museum in Long Island City. Core Texts of the Mind consists of five human-scale glass, copper and wood casks which are filled with water. As the participant blows into a disk that is set at a height approximating the heart, a light goes on inside a glass container (at approximately head height). A preserved human brain slowly rises into the light. The brain remains in the light as long as the participant breathes into the disk. Once the participant stops, the light goes off and the brain slowly lowers. In each of the five glass cylinders there is a brain dyed a different color: purplish magenta, blue, green, gray and brown. Each brain totes a brass icon that represents a different aspect of the mind. The artists wanted to confront his audience with real brains and change their perception of the human brain. When we see human brains in the media, they are often used as elements of horror or curiosity. "I want people to perceive the brain as beautiful," Krasnow said. In an interview responding to a question about the "immorality" of using body parts, Krasnow said, "There is a long history of artists using cadavers for aesthetic, artistic and philosophical purposes. Artists such as Gericault and Da Vinci both used body parts as models for their drawings. [With Core Texts of the Mind], the encounter with a brain is important enough that it demands an actual human brain and not a substitute or reproduction." -- L. Powers
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