Type A is the collaboration of Adam Ames (born 1969) and Andrew Bordwin (born 1964). They have been collaborating since 1998, working in a variety of media including video, performance, installation, photography, sculpture, drawing and needlepoint. Ames and Bordwin began their practice by using a variety of media to explore the ways in which men compete, challenge and play, and the resulting social and psychological imbalance. The results of their works ranged from psychologically disarming to profoundly absurd.
Over the past eight years, their working process has been characterized by three essential shifts: their practice has expanded to include a larger collaborative circle in virtually every project they develop; it has increasingly sought to place work outside the usual venues in which contemporary art is seen and experienced; and it has focused on some of the most urgent issues facing our societies today: territory, fear, safety and authority — both real and perceived.
Adam Ames was born in New York City. He received a BA in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and worked as John Coplans' studio assistant before receiving an MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 1997. Andrew Bordwin was born in Framingham, MA. He received a BA in Classical Civilizations and a BFA in Photography from New York University in 1987. Bordwin worked for Paul Warchol for several years immediately after graduation, training as a photographer in the style of Ezra Stoller.
In 1998 Ames asked Bordwin, who is trained in Aikido, to help with a video project that would re-enact a high school wrestling match. The resulting piece, Dance, became their first collaboration. They each continued with their solo practices until 2004 when their collaborative work took full priority. They were given the name Type A by New York gallery owner Sara Meltzer.
Type A's work incorporates elements of humor, absurdity, consequence and one-upmanship to explore "the ways in which men compete, challenge and play, and the resulting social and psychological imbalance."[1]
From 2009 to 2011 Type A embarked on two projects exploring fear, safety and authority: Barrier (2009) and Trigger (2011). Barrier is a large scale concrete sculpture installation recreating Jersey highway barriers and Trigger explores America's obsession with guns. For Trigger, Type A created a series of photographs which are printed and sold as shooting targets by Law Enforcement Targets Inc. With this project they practice what they call "Interpropriation" or “the act of interjecting themselves and actively participating in cultures outside the art world.”[2]
In 2012 Type A had a solo exhibition titled Guarded at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The exhibition continued their exploration of fear and authority by confronting TSA guidelines.
Type A has also exhibited at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, CT), The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY), DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park (Lincoln, MA), The Luckman Fine Art Complex at California State University (Los Angeles, CA), The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), Art in General (New York, NY), The Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA), The List Visual Arts Center at MIT (Cambridge, MA), (Rotterdam, The Netherlands), Centro de la Imagen (Mexico City, Mexico), Contemporary Art Center (New Orleans, LA), Institute of Contemporary Art (Palm Beach, FL), UCLA Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA) and The Johnson Museum at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) in addition to many galleries.
Ames and Bordwin teach at Parsons The New School for Design and have been Adjunct Faculty there since 2002.