Accumulation #1 (exhibiton and comments)
Well, the first Accumulation project is up, at the Galleria il Sotoportego in Venice. Seems good to have it done, though the project itself still feels unfinished. I didn't really get it to a point where I feel I have a solid message, which might not be a bad thing, but a failure on my part as that was a goal with this project; I'm still adverse to creating work that is too didactic.
I think this exhibition shows a work in progress, as the Koch brothers and their company are hard to but a finger on, which is completely what they want. So perhaps this is one that would be better served as another kind of project (book, web, etc.) Though I still like the idea of making huge protraits of them...
So here are some of the images with some captions.
The squares around this end of the gallery are collagraphs of the logos of all the companies Koch Industries owns. The stacks on the bottom of the third image are silkscreen protraits of the brothers, intended as a giveaway. The reverse has a quote from each brother.
The black case contains dyed cyanotype portaits of the brothers, and the book on top contains most of the online research I did in the past 8 months on this project.
These are the 36 quotes taken from the website, they are silkscreened in different shades of red on paper, and stacked 12-16 high on the walls and nailed at the top. (They've since curled up each day it's been up, due to the humidity.)
This wall has the Failed Alterpieces and the large potraits. The smokestacks flanking the alterpieces were a last minute decision. I am still not very happy with the alterpieces, again fearing being too didactic or sarcastic. I thought they would provide a counterpoint to the dry silkscreen quotes, in their painterliness and materials (acetone trandsfers, oil paint, ferric chloride and shellac.) Still thinking of working on them this weekend, to push them further, either completely detroying them or attempting to clean them up.
On the left is a collagraph of the white house-esque Koch headquarters, on the right a view of a Koch plant, a carborundum print in three parts.
I think that might be the next step with this project, something being clear about the things Koch has definitely done (stealing oil from tribal and federal lands, bankrolling several conservative think tanks, giving money to republican candidates, environmental laws broken, etc) and try to be a clear as possible, combining that with strong imagery to make something memorable, something people who have written about Koch have failed to do, and something Koch themselves encourages.
I think this exhibition shows a work in progress, as the Koch brothers and their company are hard to but a finger on, which is completely what they want. So perhaps this is one that would be better served as another kind of project (book, web, etc.) Though I still like the idea of making huge protraits of them...
So here are some of the images with some captions.
The squares around this end of the gallery are collagraphs of the logos of all the companies Koch Industries owns. The stacks on the bottom of the third image are silkscreen protraits of the brothers, intended as a giveaway. The reverse has a quote from each brother.
The black case contains dyed cyanotype portaits of the brothers, and the book on top contains most of the online research I did in the past 8 months on this project.
These are the 36 quotes taken from the website, they are silkscreened in different shades of red on paper, and stacked 12-16 high on the walls and nailed at the top. (They've since curled up each day it's been up, due to the humidity.)
This wall has the Failed Alterpieces and the large potraits. The smokestacks flanking the alterpieces were a last minute decision. I am still not very happy with the alterpieces, again fearing being too didactic or sarcastic. I thought they would provide a counterpoint to the dry silkscreen quotes, in their painterliness and materials (acetone trandsfers, oil paint, ferric chloride and shellac.) Still thinking of working on them this weekend, to push them further, either completely detroying them or attempting to clean them up.
On the left is a collagraph of the white house-esque Koch headquarters, on the right a view of a Koch plant, a carborundum print in three parts.
I think that might be the next step with this project, something being clear about the things Koch has definitely done (stealing oil from tribal and federal lands, bankrolling several conservative think tanks, giving money to republican candidates, environmental laws broken, etc) and try to be a clear as possible, combining that with strong imagery to make something memorable, something people who have written about Koch have failed to do, and something Koch themselves encourages.
posted by Lou at 11:40 PM
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