“Three Solo Exhibitions”
Art in General
This event has ended.
Basim Magdy: An Absent Population Laughs at its Haunting Withdrawal
Interested in the power of mass media, information systems, and scientific theories—and the relationship between what is real and fiction in such domains—Magdy uses a combination of images and words to construct narratives that can be humorous, reflective, or disquieting, but never linear. His work is at once suggestive of times past, present and future through the seamless interweaving of imagery—from historic ruins, to futuristic landscapes, to everyday scenes from a nondescript present. Alongside an implied desire to know what the future holds is a sharp critique of the notion that the passing of time is indicative of societal progress. Rather, his films suggest the constant push-pull of a striving for progress against cycles of repeated failure: the future becomes less about promise than a continuous re-enactment of the present.
Daphne Fitzpatrick: The Baton
Located somewhere between Duchamp and slapstick comedy, Daphne Fitzpatrick’s photography, found objects, and mixed-media installations infuse the quotidian with uncanny meaning through repetition, shifts in scale, and eyebrow-raising juxtapositions. In her work, cultural references from the Western art historical canon to Groucho Marx all coexist using the language of surrealism and the organizing structure of the non-sequitur. The artist is equally fascinated by the history of the flâneur and the tastes of the dandy; those who developed a refined aesthetic position by appropriating neglected or subversive characteristics of the urban landscape.
Will Yackulic: Enigma Variations
Inspired by the nineteenth century Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, in which Edward Elgar composed musical scores that revealed aspects of friends’ character traits, Yackulic initially took the personalities of his peers as source material in this latest body of work. Manifesting as clay constructions with complex geometries, the renderings are fairly incomprehensible, skewing toward the allegorical. As a portraitist, Yackulic searches for essence, if not likeness. The artworks are receptacles of intimacies—vessels in the literal sense, as each acquaintance was asked to privately deposit an object inside their hollow, ceramic flask. Maintaining an unknown relationship between interior and exterior, the subject of each study remains anonymous, and the artist is blind to the items sealed inside. The newest sculptures in this series, on view at Art in General, demonstrate a development into a broader study of our shared tendency to invest form with personality.
Media
Schedule
from November 07, 2014 to January 10, 2015
Opening Reception on 2014-11-07 from 18:00 to 20:00