Anika Todd
Sun Economy
July 22 - August 13, 2023
Reception: Saturday, July 22 @ 3-6pm
at
251 W 39th Street on the 14th Floor
New York, NY 10018
§ 27-2060 Lighting and ventilation of living rooms in new law tenements: Required windows. Every living room in a new law tenement shall have a window opening on: (1) A street, or (2) A lawful yard or court — New York City Administrative Code, Title 27: Construction and Maintenance, Subchapter 3: Physical and Occupancy Standards for Dwelling Units, Article 1: Lighting and Ventilation
Lydian Stater is delighted to present a site-specific exhibition by Anika Todd located at 251 W 39th Street on the 14th Floor, her first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Located high above the streets of Midtown Manhattan, Sun Economy focuses on daylight as a vital resource within the city. The installation uses mirrors and devices to visualize the movement of the sun, charting the position of the room in relation to the architecture of the city and the rotation of the earth. New York City allows for the sale and transfer of air rights that enable developers to purchase unused air space from neighboring properties in order to construct taller buildings. This practice is highly regulated and in the laws surrounding it, as well as in building construction codes, there is an acknowledgement that air, and access to light, are resources that need to be protected for individuals.
A central photograph, Sun Repeater, images a shaded city street below, projecting a square of light downward from the gallery balcony. This extension of light is at the heart of the exhibition; it contemplates how one’s position in the city affects their access to seemingly free and unlimited resources. Using meticulously mounted outside mirrors, Todd redirects available light into the gallery. Brass contraptions act as refractors, rebounders, and receptacles while maintaining an inherent sculptural quality. For a precise synchronous duration each day, sunshine takes form on the gallery walls, moving slowly and accentuating the minutiae of the objects, photographs, surfaces, and corners within the space.
A series of curated photographs, provided by Todd’s network of artists and friends, disclose particular moments of domestic light availability: patches of illumination fall upon a textured wall, window blinds produce quintessential sunbeams traversing along a desk, a shining angular outline expands across a hardwood floor. Continuing in her practice of working in public spaces, documentation images show Todd’s mirrored interventions into the neighborhood surrounding the gallery. An address label identifies the location where a small mirror has been mounted. These mirrors, for a moment each day, amplify an existing phenomenon in a city filled with glass buildings, bouncing accidental spotlights in the direction of those passing by.
Meant to be more of a love poem than a lamentation, these works choose to focus on what’s left for us; a survival strategy in a time where shared resources are increasingly threatened. When something is scarce, we see it more clearly. As a whole, Sun Economy asks what it means, and who is allowed, to control access to essential immaterial resources fundamental to our humanness.
Anika Todd’s work investigates Western principles of property that authorize ownership of earth and sky. Reaching into the air and below the ground, Todd uses sculpture and video to reconfigure materials and imaging techniques historically used for surveillance and control of public space, repurposing them for collective/playful use. Todd (b.1992, Boston MA) earned her BFA from MassArt followed by an MFA from The University of Texas at Austin. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Flux Factory NYC, VisArts Center VA and Co-Lab Gallery in Austin TX, the last two shows reviewed by the Washington Post (2018) and Glasstire (2019) respectively. Todd has held residencies at Stove Works (2021), NARS Foundation (2020), and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2019). In 2019, she received the Austin Cultural Art Council Award and in 2022 was a finalist for the NYFA Architecture/ Environmental Structures/ Design Award. She is currently based in Saint Louis MO teaching sculpture as the Beamont Artist in Residence for Sam Fox School of Art and Design.