"Pump" by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi Opening Reception

Pump takes motor oil and speculative oil imaginaries as grounds for exploring the most significant commodity of the modern era: petrol. Petrol rests on a paradox: it is as mundane as everyday automobile fuel or derivative for artificial food dye, yet as incendiary as a worthy proposition for wars waged on oil-rich sovereign nations. More materially, petrol’s status as both “dirty” (residue-stained hands at the gas pump) and “sacred” (holy, finite, precious) only deepens this paradox. Pump also revolves on oil speculation as a primary indicator for measurement in the U.S.A. imagination, namely optimism in the populace (qualified) and constant growth in the markets (quantified). Westward manifest destiny, upward-bound stock tickers for crude oil, synthetic oil-derived innovations of staggering diversity, even futurist propositions for exploration in outer space all necessitate a bottomless addiction for crude pipelines.