FAILE
A Riot of Existence
Container, Santa Fe, NM
Nov 15th, 2024 – Feb 9th, 2025
“We’re thinking about time, the rapturous pulse of existence, and the artifacts we give life to—both as forms and ideas along the way.”
Like much of FAILE’s work, A Riot of Existence highlights the collaborative Gestalt behind their process and their relationship with their tireless “city as muse.” They see individual posters, graffiti tags, and urban detritus as the building blocks of New York City’s visual tapestry—like notes contributing to the expansive harmony of an orchestral score.
Since 2008, a significant part of their work has been inspired by traditional craft movements, particularly quilt making and woodwork. FAILE found quilt making closely aligned with their collage process—taking disparate elements of type and imagery, each with its own history, and weaving them together to create new narratives and icons. Much like historic quilts that repurposed discarded fabrics into something functional and beautiful, FAILE transforms cultural scraps of time into cohesive works of art.
Their work evolved further when they began using discarded wooden boxes and plywood near their Brooklyn studio, extending their practice from working on the streets, when they began working as FAILE in 1999. This shift led them to explore the tradition of wooden puzzles from the late 1800s and deepen their appreciation of quilt making, particularly the quilts of Gee’s Bend. These influences solidified the connection between their street work—urban grids of posters and advertisements—and the process of assembling their wood paintings and collages, finding beauty and meaning in fragmented pieces.
Like New York City itself, where they live and work, FAILE draws inspiration from the melding of worlds—the one and the many. Their collaboration underscores the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
FAILE’s fascination with transformation and form is central to their fabric works, where they explore the tension between preserving fragments of the past and weaving them into new stories. Like layers of posters, beauty ads, and event flyers that cling to the structures of New York, these works form a dynamic tapestry of time.
A trip to Santa Fe, driving through the desert back to Arizona where the artists spent much of their childhood, gave rise to a sense of expansiveness and possibility. The sky, clouds, and shifting landscape sparked an idea that shaped the structure of the show.
“Clouds racing under saturated skies reveal visceral moments shaped by winds and weather, like waves on the horizon. Each moment rides the razor’s edge of time, slicing the past from the present, blazing into the future in a riot of existence.”
These fleeting moments—like catching lightning in a bottle—became a vivid patchwork of memories, raising the question: Will I be remembered? In weaving together these sacred moments, FAILE reflects on and gives form to how we capture and cherish the riot of existence.
The intersection of art and architecture is deeply intertwined with the city. Years of working on the streets—putting up artwork on buildings, walls, and bridge supports—have demonstrated how architecture provides a framework for images and ideas, which in turn become part of the city’s visual language.
In A Riot of Existence, eight towering quilted fabric columns, traditionally symbols of strength and permanence, are transformed into dynamic, colorful structures that reflect the fluid, ever-changing nature of life. Each column, composed of myriad fabrics and patterns, represents a unique fragment of existence, celebrating the complexity of our experiences, memory, and form. The juxtaposition of rigid classical forms with textured, flowing fabric illustrates the tension and harmony inherent in the riot of existence.
Together, these moments create a structure that is both robust and intricately beautiful.
