Marco Rios "Melancholy (and a Baguette)"
Simon Preston Gallery
This event has ended.
Simon Preston presents Melancholy (and a Baguette), the second solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Marco Rios at the gallery.
Marco Rios adopts literary, filmic and art historical references, producing theatrical installations and humorous performances that expose a preoccupation with paranoia, love, death, and delirium. In this instance, French cinema & literature, film noir and surrealism all act as departure points.
Above the gallery, a giant parrot is projected, appearing to use the roof as its perch. The work brings to life the final passages of Gustave Flaubert's heartbreaking 1877 novella Un Cur Simple. Additionally, the parrot is a visual match to a stuffed parrot Flaubert had sitting on his desk while writing the novella and which served as his muse.
Dramatically stage-lit, a window transforms the interior gallery space into an exterior film set. Text written in neon is revealed through a reflection in a puddle of water on the gallery floor. The salient quote from controversial French author and filmmaker Michel Houellebecq creates the anxious and unsettling feeling of entering into the artist's inner consciousness.
Devoid of any image or narrative, a series of empty frames appear to be slowly melting and forming teardrops. This gesture is further evoked in the work Crygasm (2010). The video is a continuous loop of the artist, frozen in thought, while enormous waterfalls
Media
Schedule
from January 13, 2013 to February 17, 2013
Extended gallery hour:Open every Friday until 9pm
Opening Reception on 2013-01-13 from 18:00 to 20:00