We know that fashion repeats itself. But do the events, celebrities, and politics of one era also repeat in similar manner? Think of it this way; the history of one era is like an imprint upon which the next era improvises. That said, we constantly have that déjà vu feeling – “I’ve seen this all before and yet…” Hence, Zg Press presents Prices Upon Request. It is a re-archiving of an archive. The archive being the fuzzy memory of the recent ‘80s and ‘90s, tinged with nostalgia and some regret (Did I really wear florescent orange and is it really coming back?! Or for those with a more political bent – We already had the Savings and Loans scandal, must we go through it again and this time on a global scale?).

Writer and performance artist Kate Durbin logs serious hours on the webspace, finding hidden gems of photography that she is attracted to. Her growing stash of current images culled from the net is Kate’s own archive of her historic moment. Yet, when viewed as a collection, the pattern of the past reveals itself as an imprint on these images. Not an aping of it mind you, but an improvisation on its themes. It’s all there, the S&M, Wall Street Gluttony, fetishism, et al. To gather and archive these images is a re-archiving of the past. Prices Upon Request is a multidimensional history piece where history is not necessarily linear but rather dimensional – one that is made by the other and re-forms both.

Christina Valentine
Zg Press, Dir. Curatorial Projects.