Two exhibitions
dal 8/12/2005 al 13/1/2006
Segnalato da
8/12/2005
Two exhibitions
Aron Packer Gallery, Chicago
Brian Dettmer has transformed discarded maps, atlases, books, encyclopedia sets, and even cassette tapes into super obsessive and compelling artwork. David Buckingham goes far beyond simple 'found object' work. He roams windblown alleys, abandoned factories, gritty industrial areas, and the high deserts of Southern California to acquire his raw materials.
Gallery 1:
Brian Dettmer
Altered States. Explorations in media modification
Brian Dettmer has been busy. For his second solo show at Aron Packer
Gallery, Dettmer has transformed discarded maps, atlases, books,
encyclopedia sets, and even cassette tapes into super obsessive and
compelling artwork. For the Altered States series, he has taken regional
maps and cut the land away leaving only major interstates and highways,
which he then layers on top of each other between pieces of glass. The
effect is a 3-D road map that is visually stunning from the effect of crisp
cuts, layering, and shadow play.
M.I.A., another intricate map work, eliminates any hint of text from a map
of the Middle East. With the current events in the region this extraction
of content can be read many ways. The extraction manifests an easier, more
minimal landscape becoming more universal and less specific‹but it¹s also a
metaphor for the ignorance of our current political situation
Also phenomenal is a set of encyclopedias that stands vertically. Pages
have been carved one book at a time from top to bottom, leaving only the
hard covers, leaving the shape of a contained figure that is ambiguous and
universal while at the same time inhuman or otherworldly.
Dettmer¹s work creates new relationships and meanings that emerge from the
alteration of text and image, through sculptural subtraction and forces the
viewer to respond with their own loaded feelings and views.
Gallery 2:
David Buckingham
California Screaming. New work from Los Angeles
For David Buckingham Los Angeles is the subject matter, and old battered
colorful metal is the medium, but this artist goes far beyond simple 'found
object' work. He roams windblown alleys, abandoned factories, gritty
industrial areas, and the high deserts of Southern California to acquire his
raw materials. He's in search of the cast away, the discarded, the
abandoned--things that have had a previous life and have the scars to prove
it. Old 55-gallon barrels, farm equipment, road signs, and tractor parts
are carted to his downtown Los Angeles studio where he muscles them into
works of art with a bewildering array of power tools and sheer force of
will.
Inspired by visual colloquialisms --street gangs, hand signs, handguns,
muscle car logos, and text‹ Buckingham translates a lifetime of images
pounded into him since he was young. Combining elegant decay with his own
high / low vision, he creates his own specific vernacular.
Reception: Friday, December 9, 2005 69 pm
Aron Packer Gallery
118 N. Peoria - Chicago
Gallery Hours: Tuesday Saturday 11.00am5.30pm