Harris Lieberman is pleased to present How to Have a Socially
Responsible Orgasm and Other Life Lessons, Karl Haendel’s second solo
exhibition at the gallery. Haendel’s exacting graphite drawings cull
imagery from personal and cultural sources that touch on American
production, consumption an... Read more
Harris Lieberman is pleased to present How to Have a Socially
Responsible Orgasm and Other Life Lessons, Karl Haendel’s second solo
exhibition at the gallery. Haendel’s exacting graphite drawings cull
imagery from personal and cultural sources that touch on American
production, consumption and conservation, as well as his painstakingly
labor-intensive studio practice. The artist has likened his working
process to that of a political commentator or editorialist, and his
current exhibition provides both a meditation on authorship and a
cautionary tale for these recessionary times.
Finding the recent national interest in recycling to be framed by a
particularly American consumerist mindset, Haendel revisits World War II
propaganda that encouraged the rationing of gas, food and other
materials. Slogans like “Food is a Weapon: Don’t Waste It!” hang
alongside renderings of barking dogs, Humpty Dumpty, steam-engine trains
and police tape, offering a potent set of symbols for industry and
conservation alike.
Haendel accompanies these images with suggestions of a depleted economy too long dependent on overproduction and overconsumption, from his largely unframed, rough-hewn, teeming installation, to the graphite and
spray-paint drawings that interpolate abstract patterning with representational crumples.
