Installation shot, courtesy the artists and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
In his second solo-show in New York, Brion Nuda Rosch uses collage and sculpture with rash and hushed demeanor, fabricating found book pages and everyday materials to deface banality and cultural value. Layer by layer he investigates form, shape and process, forging a narrative between objects and images.
All with a Fucking Smile upon my Face, 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
Nature Stone Hand Stone (Hand Job), 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
The work seems to embrace nostalgia like memorabilia, but subverts the past like a daydream. In “Cucurbitaceae on Sculpture” he – quite literally – defaces a print of an unknown modern sculpture by gluing over it a Halloween-esk squash painted with white eyes and a few teeth.
Cucurbitaceae on Sculpture, 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
His collages act as pictorial cross-examinations, reducing images to elemental gestures while unearthing a conversation between subjects in the way William S. Burroughs did in his “Cut-up” techniques in literature. Like Burroughs’ “Cut-ups”, Brion’s work is reminiscent of the Dadaists, sampling from the everyday to create meaningful and meaningless portraits of the ordinary, or sometimes the remarkable. Like sophisticated, or formative shoplifting.
Always Wore a Tie Always Wore a Smile, 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
Some of Brion’s paperworks suggest the early Quaker experiment of prison reform, where inmates were hooded and gagged, put in solitary confinement for years on end.
19th Century Hooded Inmate, courtesy Arts Journal.
They were kept in stone cells with an opening at the ceiling to let the good lord in and redeem their misdoings. Instead people just went mad, yet much of the world continues this idea, AND, with much research on the subject I found no evidence of oatmeal being distributed. Imagine being waterboarded in buckets of oatmeal…anyway, now compare Brion’s work:
Sperm Squid Stuffy the Seal Take the Prize, 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
See it? See it? Spooky.
Brion Nuda Rosch is on view at DCKT Contemporary through March 10 on 21 Orchard Street in New York.
And here’s one for the road:
Long Form above Dick, 2012, courtesy the artist and DCKT Contemporary, New York City.
Contributed by Dean Dempsey.
