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25/9/2015

Sara Cwynar / Michael Cline

Retrospective, New York

Sara Cwynar
Presidential Index

I can never consider an object without some impulse to keep it. These are pictures of Avon Presidential Bust Cologne bottles I bought on Ebay. I removed their heads and now they're shirts and jackets and ties; they're printed the same size as my own torso. Five grids show the presidents arranged by most popular type at the time of my research. There are only two Theodore Roosevelts but 19 George Washingtons. This presidential index is combined with two images of makeup palettes by the company “Ultra Cosmetics” and two images of rugs
In sum: products aimed at minor improvements of the self and the home, remains of high modernist idealismAn old idea: you don’t notice something until it is broken, until it forces you to see it. One car slides into another’s spot, something is replaced. Everything works until it doesn’t. An inventory of the things I would have seen if I didn’t always look away. I hear things described as “shy” unless broken, fading into backgrounds, shelves, boxes, basements
For example: the actual smell of the product. Spilled in my car on my studio floor on my clothes and in my hair. An odor of purchased good living. The smell of kitsch, and what needs to be covered up by cologne. That is to say – the smell of a real body
I keep going back to these things for something solid. An object sized to hold in a hand. An image far from its source but still ringing. A president who can truly infiltrate the living rooms of the nation. A population wearing outA presidential bust the same size as a woman’s shoulders. That’s about seventeen inches wide. I don’t care about the past presidents. I’m not even American. What do they have to do with me? I care because I have to. My body comes up against theirs. And I can’t make anything without thinking of them.

- Sara Cwynar, 2015

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Michael Cline
Psychic Driving

Retrospective is pleased to present, ‘Psychic Driving’, a solo exhibition of new works by Michael Cline. For this exhibition Cline will present paintings that begin with found organic objects such as branches, fragments of discarded wood, succulents, and vegetables. Staged on various surfaces, these objects become the scaffolding for an aggregation of other possessions. Cline’s orchestrated compositions collapse portraiture, landscape and still-life painting into one, creating an almost subconscious scene starring ramshackle accumulations.

In each painting there is a consistent repetition of living goods. Gourds, onions, and potatoes are scattered between fragments of wood, rocks, and plants. Amongst them are cut-outs of people, free floating body parts, comics, and scraps of paper. Together these items expose a landscape of American detritus, where remnants of things long forgotten in the backs of drawers and cabinets emerge to the fore and are reanimated.

The frequency for which discarded and tattered objects appear in Cline’s work reveals a behavior driven by waste that has long been, and continues to be, relevant to American culture. It’s almost as if Cline’s paintings are antiquated with their autumnal compositions and dated scraps of media. Yet in each work there is a sense of urgency that belongs to the present. A reminder presented by a collection of forgotten objects that continue to accumulate in the nooks of our homes. Cline’s body of work subjects the viewer to a long psychic drive along a highway filled with the stuff that we once thought lost and quotidian. Image: Sara Cwynar

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 26th, 6-8PM

Retrospective Gallery
711 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
Hours: Saturday and Sunday noon–6pm

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