6 June – 24 June 2012

Marginal Utility Gallery is proud to present ‘Passing the Veil: of tXX XXXXXXX XX XXXXX’, an exhibition of new work by JOHN HAWKE as a part of FIRST AMONG EQUALS exhibition at the ICA in Philadelphia.

The project’s title: “Passing the Veil: of tXX XXXXXXX XX XXXXX” is a reference both to the KOL early quasi-Masonic initiation ceremony, there where the outer veil was the larger world, look and the inner veil the space of solidarity, and Passing the Veil, an entering into the organization; and also the process of passive forgetting and active erasing that characterizes American labor history, so instead of “Passing the Veil: of the Knights of Labor,” the title is blacked out or lost, thus: “Passing the Veil: of tXX XXXXXXX XX XXXXX.” The intention at the ICA is to create an installation that expands the gesture of the monument and reframes the KOL’s potential relevance to the present, asking: how could such history have become lost, and what limits or kindles in the viewer a sense of identification—a possibility of “joining,” that activates any popular movement. In the KOL’s egalitarian fraternalism, is there a model for the Occupy age?