- Y(OURS)
A solo exhibition at Irvine Fine Arts Center (CA), 2016.
“So what is yours? Conversely, what, really, is mine?
Lindsay Buchman’s Y(OURS) purposefully challenges our basic perceptions of self. In probing the complex social construction of what we blithely refer to as ownership, she excavates some of our more powerful and conflicted impulses.
In her exploration of the uncharted boundary between the personal and the public, Buchman asks that we examine our subconscious perceptions of I and we. The lines between them may be blurrier than one imagines. Indeed, personal identity is perceivable only within a community. Private exists only in a public landscape. Y(OURS) oscillates between the two, and its thesis is compelling: Wouldn’t both self-interest and altruism encourage the cultivation of both realms? Y(OURS) is a contemplative landscape for this worthwhile reflection.
Long dissertations could be written about the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ or the reward centers stimulated in our brains when we shop, or the commoditization of almost everything. As market theorists seductively tell us, there is power and sovereignty in owning. It is a way of projecting information about ourselves. It is, we hear, liberating to purchase and to possess.
But Y(OURS) elevates this conversation. What is privately owned, we discover, is constantly engaged with—and in conflict with—what is publicly shared. In a psychological sense, Y(OURS) becomes ours. She dares to ask if we can assign value to something – not by owning it in the conventional understanding – but by giving it time and attention. Can we absorb the possessions of others? Can we ‘possess’ through reflection? Through love? She poses a profound and liberating question: Is that kind of possession more rewarding? This mechanism is as conceptually challenging as it is edifying. In Buchman’s world, the public sphere is not in conflict with, but enriches the private, and she dares to intimate that stewardship is more rewarding than ownership.”
—David DiLeo, P.h.D.
CH 6: Incidentals, digital photograph, 2016
Just Another Event Horizon (part two), digital image from FP-100c film, 2015
Just Another Event Horizon (part one), 2015
Y(OURS), a collaborative publication, was published in conjunction with the exhibition. The book features text and image contributions from ten perspectives—spanning disciplines from history, philosophy, architecture, public policy, and visual art. Through examining collective consciousness, the publication locates itself within a communal topography. Meditating on the concept of intellectual property, the right of ownership, and the role of the individual within public and private thought, Y(OURS) posits that what is privately possessed is not separate from what is publicly governed.
Published in collaboration with the Common Press at the University of Pennsylvania.
Laser-print with softcover, 9.25 in. x 6.25 in., edition 300, 2016
All text / images © Lindsay Buchman, David DiLeo, Heather M. O'Brien, Rob Brown, Matt Neff, Haigen G. Pearson, Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz, Leyla Marandi, Rachel Arena, Kevin Berry.
Special Collections include the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carter Library at the Amon Carter American Museum of Art & the Fine Arts Library at the University of Pennsylvania.