To make Cost of Living (2014) and other works in this series, Josh Kline interviewed workers – janitorial staff and package delivers – and then made casts of their body parts that they used to complete their daily tasks. In this case, he spoke with the housekeeper named Aleyda, who worked at the Rivington Hotel.
The artist created each element of the sculptural assemblage using a 3-D printer. The results call attention to the laboring bodies of an often invisible work force, and offer a grim reminder that these workers’ humanity is often valued less than the tools they use to complete their job. Cost of Living (Aleyda) reflects what the artist has described as “the relentless push to squeeze more productivity out of workers – turning people into reliable, always–on office appliances.”
Photographed in the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.
Part Surrealist Biology Lesson, Part Otherworldly Natural History Museum and Part Full On Horror Show, Artist Matthew Day Jackson’s latest exhibit, narratively titled Something Ancient, Something New, Something Stolen, Something Blue is sure to turn a few delicate stomachs as it blows minds and leaves jaws slack during its tenure at the gargantuan Hauser & Wirth space on West 18th Street.
Matthew Day Jackson is a modern American frontiersman. His interdisciplinary practice is in an all-consuming campaign to chart the outermost limits of human physical experience and to locate the place just beyond those limits where the sublime might reside.
You Have No Idea How Long I had to Wait for Someone to Move so I Could Get This Shot
Working with a set of signature themes that range from space exploration and war machinery to advanced anatomy, he uses both traditional craft techniques and cutting edge computer mapping to make art that exposes the layered and often dark relationships between technology’s abstractions and the palpable effects of time.
This exhibit fills three huge galleries and includes many more unique and thought provoking works of art than what I’ve included here. It’s well worth checking out before it closes in mid-October, and may even inspire ideas for your Halloween costume or party decorations! Recommended especially highly for fans of the Hellraiser film franchise!
Matthew Day Jackson’s Something Ancient, Something New, Something Stolen, Something Blue will be on Exhibit through October 19th, 2013, at Hauser & Wirth, Located at 511 West 18th Street, NY New York.
Part two of Saturday night’s opening receptions at Jonathan LeVine Gallery (because there are always two) was a fun little exhibit called Search Party by Philadelphia-based artist Jim Houser. Search Party, the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery, includes a series of eight new works and a site-specific installation. Some of Houser’s work reminded me very much of the collages I saw at How & Nosm’sLate Confessions pop up exhibit back in February.
Collage with Detail, Below
Through Houser’s signature style of visual poetry and personal iconography, the artist extends his practice of self-examination to include the topic of art making itself. Works in this exhibition serve to consider Houser’s relationship to the artwork he creates, the compulsion to create it and how his lifestyle has, consequently, been formed.
Collage Painting with Two Detail Shots Below. As you can see, there is a lot of humor and childlike whimsy in the art.
The way he mixes words with pictures reminds me also of the work of Stephen Powers.
The artist’s collages become visual poems through which he cathartically communicates his most private thoughts and emotions with surprising candor. By cataloging his experiences and feelings through a unique pictorial language, the artist creates his own brand of curative iconography. His aesthetic often mixes stylized figures, hand-drawn typography and geometric shapes, creating quilt-like collages in a cohesive color palette.
Painting with Detail Below
Jim Houser layers acrylic on wood, fabric and found objects, blurring the lines between collage and sculpture. Once combined, it becomes clear that all of his works are associative and directly related. This deceptively dimensional quality is further highlighted when the pieces are assembled into one of the artist’s elaborate installations, adding to the complexity of each individual piece by emphasizing a greater inter-connectivity to the body of work as a whole.
If you’ll be heading over to LeVine to check out Shag’s Thursday’s Girl exhibit anyway, don’t forget to spend some time looking over Jim Houser’s Search Party to see what you might discover!
Search Party By Jim Houser will be on Exhibit through May 4th, 2013 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Located at 529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor, in the Chelsea Gallery District.
This statue of a young man holding the severed head of beloved, iconic fast-food mascot Ronald McDonald can be found in Venice, Italy, though I haven’t yet been able to dig up any information on the statue’s exact location or artist. I love how it sends a strong anti-McDonald’s message through the appropriation of the famous statue of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, as seen in the image below. Extreme, yes. Hilarious, also yes. But no amount of over-the-top “McDonald’s is Evil” propaganda will ever keep me away from a tasty Filet O’Fish when the craving strikes.
Update: A few observant readers have pointed out that this statue is actually most likely based on the painting David Holding the Head of Goliath by Michelangelo Carravagio. As you can see from the image below, that does appear to be the case, based on the position of the head and the sword.
