Type A, American, founded 1998, Team Building (Align), 2010, aluminum, steel cables, telephone poles, (2 rings of 30’ circumference, each). Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Courtesy of the Artists and Robert Goff Gallery, New York.

Team Building (Align) is constructed of two 30 foot-wide metal rings suspended from telephone poles and trees, oriented so that their shadows become one during the annual summer solstice. Elements of this installation were determined in collaboration with a team of IMA staff members who worked with the artist collective over a two-year period on an experiential education performance. From conversations about art to rigorous challenges courses, Type A and the IMA team collaborated to develop a sculptural form that could metaphorically convey the complexity of their collaboration.

Working together since 1998, New York-based artist collective Type A is the collaboration of Adam Ames (b. 1969) and Andrew Bordwin (b. 1964). Employing a variety of media, Type A creates artworks that address issues of masculinity, competition and collaboration in contemporary society. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions at Addison Gallery Of American Art, Andover, MA and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, and have exhibited in group shows such as the 2004 exhibition Boys Will Be Boys?, which traveled to many venues, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Herbert F. Johnson Museum Of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; and the IMA. One of their videos will be included in the IMA’s exhibition Framed in 2010. Type A’s recent installation titled Barrier was presented at The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY in 2009, and will travel to DeCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Lincoln, MA in 2010 and The Aldrich Museum Of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT in 2011.

Type A is the subject of a documentary video (view right) produced by the IMA, and a monograph edited by Lisa Freiman and published by Hatje Cantz and the IMA.