7/6/2002
Jason Middlebrook
Nylon, London
Visible Entropy II: Three Types of Debris. For his show at Nylon, Jason will be exhibiting a sculpture of the Tate Modern perched on a huge mound of rubble, a second model of a graffitied Guggenheim in Bilbao and a series of large-scale drawings of fantastical debris.
Visible Entropy II: Three Types of Debris
NYLON is delighted to present the first gallery show in London of New York
based artist Jason Middlebrook, following his well-documented installations
at the New Museum in New York; the Santa Monica Museum in Los Angeles; and
Pastoral Pop at the Whitney Phillip Morris, New York.
Drawing on the history of Earthworks and referencing artists such as Robert
Smithson and Michael Heiser, Jason Middlebrook reconsiders the original
questions raised by the Earthworks artists about urban landscape, cultural
institutions, and man's relationship to nature. For his show at NYLON, Jason
will be exhibiting a sculpture of the Tate Modern perched on a huge mound of
rubble, a second model of a graffitied Guggenheim in Bilbao and a series of
large-scale drawings of fantastical debris. The floor sculpture, entitled
Tate Modern 2001-02, is made of wood, styrofoam, paint and earth. The tower
of the building is rendered to look like a large core sample leaning
degenerately like the Tower of Pisa while the drawings explore the interface
between architecture, erosion and detritus.
The Geology of Biology; A celebration of Debris (detail). Mixed media on
paper (2001).
Jason Middlebrook wraps the core values of his work concerning man's
relationship to nature in multi-faceted layers that inflect the world of art
and visual ideas. This work focuses on the death of art in relationship to
entropy, a chemical process that is the first steps of decomposition,
offering the Museum itself as a tomb and a vessel of old ideas. In the case
of the Tate Modern, he suggests, we find a converted power plant with a
different type of history, a history of energy. The core sample represents
this energy from below. The re-working of the building gives a sense of
scale and production and the architectural conversion to Museum is
subordinate to the original function of the structure. This conversion is
ever present throughout the world in museums, a conversion that is often
about architecture and not about art.
Jason Middlebrook has recently exhibited at the New Museum of Contemporary
Art (2001) and the Santa Monica Museum, Los Angeles, in Pastoral Pop! at the
Whitney Museum of American Art @ Philip Morris (2000). Commissioned by the
Public Art Fund of New York City in 1999, Middlebrook created a public
artwork for the Metro Tech in Brooklyn, NY, and in a further commission, a
130 ft long painting for the Wellcome Trust in London.
OPENING HOURS: THURSDAY SUNDAY 12-6PM
NYLON
10 Vyner Street
London E2 9DG
T. +44 20 8983 5333
F. +44 20 8983 5444