SATURDAY MARCH 2 - Pardon Our Dust
a group exhibition by and for art workers in the spirit of having a good time
Howdy howdy,
Last year my buddy Ben Ortega got in touch to see if I’d be interested in participating in a group show in praise of hardware, to which my answer was an immediate and emphatic Yes. I spent the next months whittling bolts out of basswood and relishing the practice of active aestheticization as I made 1:1 replicas of machined parts found at my local army surplus store. These metal pieces (imaged above) and their softwood counterparts are suspended from laminated walnut swallowtail butterflies while tumbled quartz anchors the peripheral points to catch the light.
This wind chime is rendered almost entirely useless by the weight of its components. In considering the cultural weight(s) of luck and money, both are almost always used to sidestep views of labor. Sometimes, that looks like a sleek suburban street where the work trucks are always cleared out in advance of dinnertime, other times this evasiveness manifests in the pristine white doors that hide the exhibitions departments of museums from wandering visitors. We rarely want to confront the component parts of what physically and ideologically holds the middle class together, though I’d argue that this recognition is fundamental for political and spiritual liberation (that’s another newsletter).
Exhibition details below; make it out if you can - my buddy Matthan Cowart has one of the craziest paintings I’ve ever seen in here alongside some truly bonkers (in a good way) work; this’ll be one for the books:
Wish I could be there! I’m sure it will be awesome!