Jean Shin’s large-scale photographic series “Profiles” captures monumental figures dramatically engaged in everyday
actions. The figures in the photographs are altered sports trophies that have had their basketball, tennis racket and
hockey stick replaced with a stroller, hammer, clipboard, o... Read more
Jean Shin’s large-scale photographic series “Profiles” captures monumental figures dramatically engaged in everyday
actions. The figures in the photographs are altered sports trophies that have had their basketball, tennis racket and
hockey stick replaced with a stroller, hammer, clipboard, or other work-related prop. Enlarged and shown without their
pedestals, the individual statues feel uncannily human in their expressions and imperfections. Together these life-size
representations of a janitor, handyman, assistant, cashier, mechanic, cook and babysitter celebrate the unsung heroes
whose everyday labors ordinarily go unrecognized.
Soaking the gallery wall in burnt motor oil, “Cenit (Peak/Zenith)” by Marcela Armas is a temporal work tracing the brief
history drawn by the course of 20th century fossil fuel consumption. Slowly pumping a black viscous liquid through a
network of plastic piping shaped as a city skyline, the piece highlights waste and extraction as structural supports of
contemporary civilization. Unfolding over a period of approximately five days, the tension in this work builds a story of
excess. Much like the timeline in a film, the work starts with a place and basic premise which drives plot forward until
reaching its climactic moment of release.
The fulfillment of desire and unchecked realizations are handled in Michel de Broin’s work. “Bleed” positions a
common household drill as a scarred fountain. Pierced to death, in a reversal of its own power, the tool rests on a
pedestal as endless streams of water flow from five holes in its dead body. Exploiting its circular and self-reflexive
narrative, the piece poses unanswerable questions of its creation and destruction. Might the object have been left out
accidentally by gallery staff before opening the exhibition? Is it really part of the exhibition? A literal confrontation with
the ritualistic unseen action and sacrifice for the sake of display- its reality is troubled.
Daniel Canogar uses art installation as a vehicle that reanimates the lifeless, reviving a collective portrait of secrets
contained in discarded electronic materials. In “Pneuma 3” the ephemeral lifeblood of a telephone signal serves as a
metaphor for technological mortality. A relic in the age of information, the wires in this work were found in a dumpster
near the artist’s home. Flickering with light, the illuminated color cabling in this sculpture evokes both the stage and
crackling communications, reminding us of our own fragile bodies and natural information exchanges. Defined as
“breath” by the ancient Greeks, pneuma is a vehicle of logos, which structures the continuum of matter.
