Books float, documents sink, and memories are laundered in Sholette’s low-key and sometimes invisible installation “Torrent” for Printed Matter Books in Chelsea. The work simultaneously invokes superstorm Sandy’s disastrous flooding of the 36 year old bookstore and alternative space’s basement archives, as well as the erasure of a certain idea of the van-guard alternative space that today we find precariously straddling the divide between survival and sustainability in an era of neoliberal economic realities that are quite different from the year 1976 in which Printed Matter was founded.

Still, as with any sudden “occupation” be it that of nature, humans, or gods, it is often through a process of destruction, recovery, and recollection that new possibilities are commenced, and perhaps old initiatives are reborn.

“Torrent”: is a video installation designed for Printed Matter by Greg Sholette. The project is visible from Feb 15th to March 16th [its best to visit after dusk] and has been produced with special thanks to the artist Matthew Greco and the staff or Printed Matter.