My Global Hustle

Dates: January 26th-February 5th
Opening: Thursday January 26th 6:00-8:00pm
526 W 26th Street, #807
NY, NY 10001
www.fieldprojectsgallery.com

Field Projects is pleased to present its second exhibition Squeeze Machine, curated by Jacob Rhodes, and featuring work by Leah Bailis, Pete Deevakul, Lucy Kim, Heidi Lau, Willie Wayne Smith, Emily Stoddart, Bill Thomas and Oliver Warden. Using Temple Grandin’s ‘hug machine’ as a key point of departure, Squeeze Machine considers artist investigations into collective anxiety.

Temple Grandin is an autistic livestock consultant, world renowned for her changes to the cattle industry. The idea for the hug machine was inspired by rancher's use of squeeze chutes when inoculating cattle. She realized that the confined pressure of the chute had a calming effect on the cow and created a similar model for her own use. The pressurized hug of the squeeze machine worked to calm her physical anxiety and aversion to being touched. Likewise, the works in this show are products of a process of tension and resolve. Through individual rituals, humor, personal narratives, virtual reality, and mechanical experimentation, the artists in Squeeze Machine produce the relief of Grandin’s mechanical hug.