

Dragging The Archives Virtual Tour
An online/onsite exhibition by artist Elly Clarke of materials from the early cyber years of Franklin Furnace, 1996-2002. Installed in heavy museum-like vitrines across all levels of the Pratt Library, the show is to be encountered in any order, (pro)posing a starting point rather than an end. This ex:position is an invitation: to discuss. To encounter. To reflect. And to be involved: by writing, by posting, by augmenting the text/s by zooming in via the QR codes that will give greater clarity to the fade of the fax, the detail of the slides, the YES / NO / YES notes scribbled on the edge of a rejected proposal dug out from deep storage, and grants a voice to the person who encounters it. In physics, drag is a force that pulls in two directions at once: forwards, and back; up, and down. It is also both a performance – with the possibility of transformation – and a burden, or resistance. Within the context of this archive, how to hold this tension? How to re:present evidence of a time, an event, a happening, a performance – as well as the major institutional shift taken by Franklin Furnace at this time – out of the physical and digital matter that remains?
Virtual Tour Event
The event took place February 1, 2023, 3:00pm-4:00pm EST

Dragging the Archive is curated by Elly Clarke. Exhibition identity is designed by Yunjia Yuan. Live at the Library VIII is presented with the support of Michael Asher Foundation; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; The New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; Pratt Institute; The Silicon Valley Community Foundation; and the Board of Directors, members, and friends of Franklin Furnace Archive.
