Ward Shelley's 'Sleeper Experiment' at Pierogi Gallery combines performance with timeline drawings

From April 17 to May 17, 2009, Ward Shelley presented a solo exhibition at Pierogi gallery in Brooklyn. The show featured two distinct components: twelve labor-intensive 'Timeline' drawings in the front room and a performance piece called 'The Sleeper Experiment' in the back. For the drawings, Shelley spent at least two months researching and completing each one, including multiple versions of 'Who Invented the Avant Garde' and the 2009 work 'Media Role Models'. The performance involved Shelley sleeping inside a large cardboard box during gallery hours while listening to computerized versions of texts submitted by visitors via email or website. At night, he created drawings based on these texts, adding new artworks to the exhibition over time. The box was situated within an unrelated 'Archive' installation co-created with artist Douglas Paulson. Shelley's endurance art practice includes previous projects like the 1998 'Voyage Platform' at Socrates Sculpture Park with two other artists and the 2007 'Flatland' installation at Long Island City's Sculpture Center as part of 'The Happiness of Objects' group show. The exhibition raised questions about whether Shelley should focus solely on works on paper or continue undertaking impossible performative tasks.