John Dunivant “The Expatriate Parade”
The Lodge Gallery
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Wasserman Projects, the Detroit based gallery which brings international artists to Detroit, and Detroit artists to the world, presents John Dunivant: The Expatriate Parade, a New York pop-up exhibition held at the Lodge Gallery, 131 Chrystie Street.
John Dunivant has achieved notoriety throughout the city of Detroit and internationally as mastermind of Theatre Bizarre. Self-funded and built by dozens of artists over the course of months, with a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Theatre would take place for one night each year in an abandoned fairground and featured massive carnival rides, pyrotechnics, elaborate lighting rigs, and Coney Island-esque performers. The Expatriate Parade features a series of paintings and bronzes inspired by the closure of Theatre Bizarre. Facing an existential crisis, Dunivant chose to embrace the turmoil of the situation, with the resulting works on view in The Expatriate Parade serving as a celebration of his “exile”. Dunivant takes inspiration across many timelines and aesthetics: Victorian medical illustrations, conspiracy iconography, classic boardwalk signage and comic books alongside artists ranging from John Singer-Sargent and Hieronymus Bosch to Dr. Seuss, these disparate sources coalesce through what he describes as “a lens of papier-mâché, poster paint and wax edifice”. His Theatre Bizarre initially ran for ten years, attracting thousands of visitors from throughout the world before its discovery and subsequent closure by city authorities in 2010. Theatre Bizarre now operates legally at the Detroit Masonic Temple where it will hold its 13th edition on October 19, 2013 and and is the subject of an upcoming documentary. Macabre in their imagery and sitting across numerous pop cultural narratives, the joy Dunivant takes from the subject matter in The Expatriate Parade is evident, and fitting for an artist working far from the art world capitals in Detroit, facing its own existential crisis, with the attendant anxiety of loss, displacement, and fantasy of an unknown, perhaps better, future.
Media
Schedule
from September 25, 2013 to October 12, 2013
Opening Reception on 2013-09-25 from 18:00 to 20:00