There are a number of works I’ve seen lately that are totally blowing my mind. They tend to revolve around the idea of deconstructing these common things that are virtually woven into our DNA (not a new idea, I know). Two of the projects take our common notion of what a “house” is and basically pull it through a 5-dimensional shredder, bending and twisting and exposing those parts that we know are there but never see. To me, this does three things:
a) it forces you to reconsider both the world in general and the world in which you exist comfortably (and in which, perhaps, you shouldn’t feel so comfortable) and, ultimately, the vulnerability of that world,
b) it feels very much like a metaphor for all those things that require faith to exist, including god, love, and your own sense of comfort (see above), and
c) it reveals the parallels between our fabricated world and and the natural world (peel back the skin and there are the bones).
Below are two photos that are seriously overloading my brain right now. In a good way.
Robbie Rowlands
Dan Havel and Dean Ruck
the first one–with the floor peeling up–is totally striking. both are, but the second project seems more visual in a “wow that’s nutty” way, whereas the first is more disturbing and challenging to me. my grandma used to tell me the back of one’s needle point canvas should look as good as the front even though no one would ever see it. i still carry that philosophy with me whether submitting work in a show or making all the mats i cut neat and clean on BOTH sides. when the wooden panels of our library rortunda are removed for general maintainence and i can see all the cigarette butts left behind by contractors in 1998 and it drives me crazy. but i like the mystery aspect of it. it makes me think of public vs. private personas and diseased organs within a seemingly healthy body.
I agree with your assessment of the images provided, but I should add that the second project has some additional photos available that show how the hole “punched” (it feels more “ripped and pulled” to me) into the house travels the entire length of the house, and one can travel from one end to the other (although you end up crawling out of the far end). But I think I agree to a certain extent; the first project feels more refined in its completeness. Your comment about “diseased organs within a seemingly healthy body” is exactly what I meant by “peel back the skin and there are the bones”. That’s the very kind of almost sickly feeling I get thinking about what’s under the floor and inside the walls. And, of course, there are too many metaphors that can be drawn from that to mention. I think Robbie Rowlands is really good at generating that sort of sad feeling I get when I listen to Bon Iver or Gillian Welch. But he’s also got a truly wonderful sense of execution.
http://www.robbierowlands.com.au/
it’s so interesting to me how music nails this feeling more than any other medium. when it happens in visual art it’s extra special because i think it’s terribly hard to capture the exact essence of happysad. something about music is capable of instantly connecting me to that emotion.
[…] 16, 2010 I’ve posted elsewhere why I dig Robbie Rowlands. In a recent show, he has taken a number of rather commonplace items and […]