Between the Bars
BETWEEN THE BARS
by Adam Liam Rose
52 pages
First Edition of 200
Risograph
Feb 2021
Between the Bars is a volume containing 30 graphite drawings created by artist Adam Liam Rose. The drawings replicate a performance work Rose made in 2013 titled “Soragim,” where they built and occupied the in-between space of a freestanding window and its bars. Rose then wove white yarn between the bars until disappearing into a field of white. Likewise, the drawings progress from 1 to 30 as a line of thread weaves through ornamental window bars, eventually creating a wall of woven line across the page. Rose reimagines the windowsill as a performative site—almost as an actor on the stage. This “queer” space is a meditation on time and place, knowing and unknowing, a safe space of both comfort and discomfort.
Adam Liam Rose (b. 1990 | he/they) is an interdisciplinary artist working across sculpture, drawing, video and installation. Born in Jerusalem and raised mostly in the United States, his works investigate the aesthetic systems of power embedded within architecture. Rose draws inspiration from political realities in Israel / Palestine and the United States, often looking to structures of separation and control whose intentions either manifest outright, or slither beneath the surface. His works navigate ideas around artifact, “history,” and collective memory, uncovering how these distinct categories coalesce into feelings of place or “placeness.” Utilizing and subverting utilitarian materials including paper, textiles, and plywood, he creates a space for dialogue between the permanent and the ephemeral, the physical body, and the history embedded in objects.
He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY