Type A (artist collective)

Type A is the collaboration of Adam Ames (born 1969) and Andrew Bordwin (b. 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, NY. 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."

Dance (1998) was followed by 4 Urban Contests (1998) and 5 Urban Rescues (1998). The former deals directly with competition, documenting performances ranging from races and obstacle course trials to literal pissing contests. The latter focuses more on collaboration, depicting highly dramatized action scenes in which Ames and Bordwin trade off playing the role of victim and savior. This role-playing lead to Twins Project (1998–99), which explores issues of competition, regression and childhood with custom dolls that were made in their likeness by the My Twinn Company . Outstanding (1999) also incorporates performance and role-playing in an investigation of male bonding, competition and endurance. Ames and Bordwin, dressed in business attire, stand outside a corporate building shaking hands over the course of the thirty-minute video.

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