Barry Johnston "Sharpened Key"
James Fuentes LLC
This event has ended.
James Fuentes presents the remnants of Barry Johnston's performance Sharpened Key. Leading the performance with the creation of a talisman, a red backpack bearing a third eye, the object now hangs on the gallery wall to peer out over the rest of the staging. Johnston transformed the gallery space with an installation of colored light bulbs and objects, including a cement parking block and payphone receiver ripped from its housing, which all have symbolic meaning for the artist.
However, it is his interminable energy that makes performance the necessary mode for Johnston's form of expression. Combining poetry, music, dance, and various actions, Johnston becomes a Brahman figure of contemporary culture who really only wants to start the party. During the performance, Johnston proclaimed, 'I love my luck more than my dreams.' This element of chance and anarchy pervades his gestures, too, as when he set fire to lighter fluid that was splashed on the surface of a mirror.
In another action, Johnston forcibly, and at times with great strain, tunneled his entire body through a wire hanger. This act, symbolic of rebirth and of coming to a state of awareness, rendered the wire hanger as an indexical trace of the artist himself. Disfigured from its recognizable shape by Johnston's body, the wire material stands in as a representation of Johnston's physical presence. Presently hung on the wall, the wire hanger could resemble a noose, and juxtaposed with the rope that supports the installation of the payphone receiver, it looks somewhat menacing.
Now, the traces of Johnston's gestures, the residue of the fire on the mirror and scattered nails, mark the gallery space in testament to the singular performance. But without the artist's energy, the remnants of the performance have a slightly forlorn tone—similar to waking up to a scene of wreckage from the previous night's party.
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Schedule
from February 11, 2012 to February 24, 2012