Type A is the collaboration of Adam Ames (born 1969) and Andrew Bordwin (born 1964). They have been collaborating since 1998, working in a variety of media including video, performance, installation, photography, sculpture, drawing and needlepoint. Ames and Bordwin began their practice by using a variety of media to explore the ways in which men compete, challenge and play, and the resulting social and psychological imbalance. The results of their works ranged from psychologically disarming to profoundly absurd.
Over the past eight years,[when?] their working process has been characterized by three essential shifts: their practice has expanded to include a larger collaborative circle in virtually every project they develop; it has increasingly sought to place work outside the usual venues in which contemporary art is seen and experienced; and it has focused on some of the most urgent issues facing our societies today: territory, fear, safety and authority — both real and perceived.
Biography
Adam Ames was born in New York City. He received a BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and worked as John Coplans' studio assistant before receiving an MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 1997. Andrew Bordwin was born in Framingham, MA. He received a BA in Classical Civilizations and a BFA in Photography from New York University in 1987. Bordwin worked for Paul Warchol for several years immediately after graduation, training as a photographer in the style of Ezra Stoller.
The City of New York, usually referred to as either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 8,398,748 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 19,979,477 people in its 2018 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 22,679,948 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the nine colonial colleges founded prior to the Declaration of Independence and the first institution of higher learning in the United States to refer to itself as a university. Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder and first president, advocated an educational program that trained leaders in commerce, government, and public service, similar to a modern liberal arts curriculum.
John Rivers Coplans was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and North America. He was on the founding editorial staff of Artforum from 1962 to 1971, and was Editor-in-Chief from 1972 to 1977.
In 1998 Ames asked Bordwin, who is trained in Aikido, to help with a video project that would re-enact a high school wrestling match. The resulting piece, Dance, became their first collaboration. They each continued with their solo practices until 2004 when their collaborative work took full priority. They were given the name Type A by New York gallery owner Sara Meltzer.
Aikido is a modern Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy and religious beliefs. Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is often translated as "the way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the way of harmonious spirit".
Work
Type A's work incorporates elements of humor, absurdity, consequence and one-upmanship to explore "the ways in which men compete, challenge and play, and the resulting social and psychological imbalance."[1]
One-upmanship is the art or practice of successively outdoing a competitor by discomfiting him.
1998–2002
Dance (1998) was followed by 4 Urban Contests (1998) and 5 Urban Rescues (1998). The former deals directly with competition, documenting performances ranging from races and obstacle course trials to literal pissing contests. The latter focuses more on collaboration, depicting highly dramatized action scenes in which Ames and Bordwin trade off playing the role of victim and savior. This role-playing lead to Twins Project (1998–1999), which explores issues of competition, regression and childhood with custom dolls that were made in their likeness by the My Twinn Company. Outstanding (1999) also incorporates performance and role-playing in an investigation of male bonding, competition and endurance. Ames and Bordwin, dressed in business attire, stand outside a corporate building shaking hands over the course of the thirty-minute video.
2002–2006
In 2002 the focus of Type A's work shifted. Continuing to use their bodies as a medium for performance, pieces such as Mark (2002), Stand (2002–2006) and Push (2004) assess their physical differences and the balance (or imbalance) in their partnership, bringing into question the role of the individual and the collective.
The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art. The museum's purpose is to acquire, preserve, interpret, and exhibit works of art for the education and enjoyment of local, regional, national and international audiences, including the students, faculty, and community of Phillips Academy, and other students, teachers, scholars and the general public.
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201. It is part of the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Massachusetts-New Hampshire metropolitan statistical area. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Andover. It is twinned with its namesake: Andover, Hampshire, England.
Phillips Academy Andover is a co-educational university-preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate (PG) year. The school is in Andover, Massachusetts, United States, 25 miles north of Boston. Phillips Academy has 1,150 students, and is a highly selective school, accepting 13% of applicants with a yield as high as 86%. It is part of the Eight Schools Association, Ten Schools Admissions Organization as well as the G20 Schools Group.
From 2009 to 2011 Type A embarked on two projects exploring fear, safety and authority: Barrier (2009) and Trigger (2011). Barrier is a large scale concrete sculpture installation recreating Jersey highway barriers and Trigger explores America's obsession with guns. For Trigger, Type A created a series of photographs which are printed and sold as shooting targets by Law Enforcement Targets Inc. With this project they practice what they call "Interpropriation" or “the act of interjecting themselves and actively participating in cultures outside the art world.”[2]
In 2012 Type A had a solo exhibition titled Guarded at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.[citation needed] The exhibition continued their exploration of fear and authority by confronting TSA guidelines.
↑ "Richard Klein, Type A: Barrier and Trigger, p.3"
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References
Freiman, Lisa D. Type A, Hatje Cantz, 2009
Sheets, Hilarie M. "Serious Play", Art In America, November 2009
Sheets, Hilarie M. “100 Acres to Roam, No Restrictions.” New York Times. June 13, 2010: Arts 22.
Klein, Richard. Type A: Barrier and Trigger, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, 2011
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