Chris Dean “Speaking in Tongues”
Krause Gallery
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“Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” - Ecclesiastes
Krause Gallery presents “Speaking in Tongues” where Chris Dean will return to New York City for his solo exhibition at Krause Gallery.
Dean’s new series comes from his belief that we are able to communicate in sophisticated ways because we give meaning to marks, sounds and gestures, something perhaps unique in the universe. Tis way of abstracting the world is the backbone of everything we might list as an accomplishment and the main thing that separates us from other creatures. Its a powerful asset but comes at a cost, primarily that our world exists as symbols and we give value only to things assigned meaning. Meaning says, “Tis means Tat,” pointing away from the raw thing before us, from experience, to an invention of our intellect. Te curse of meaning is that always takes us away from Tis.
Speaking in Tongues is a viewer-centric body of work using the lenticular medium as a vehicle into experience. Te optical properties of the work present unplanned vignettes to the viewer through the cross talk of multiple layers of sequenced images. What is seen is a partnership between the work and the person and changes idiosyncratically with the viewer’s movements. Recognizable forms pollinate with their neighbors making new images that are unique to the moment of observation. Experience takes precedence over meaning and the raw thing is the focus.
Te series draws on the ideas of the Freakout, a concept of 1960s psychedelic culture where moments of art and music were engineered to channel perception in new directions. Tis involved over-saturating the senses with unfamiliar stimuli and encouraged a particular preconditioned state of mind. While I assume more ordinary circumstances the idea of providing a well saturated environment that rewards experiential participation is the same.
Lenticular is a process that pairs carefully constructed imagery with sheets of optical plastic engraved with fne lenses. It delivers efects similar to those of holography including a simulated sense of depth and motion. It was popularized in the 1940’s and used primarily in novelty and commercial products with only a handful of artists developing bodies of work around it early on. It has seen a resurgence of use with the rise in high resolution printing and has a growing base of contemporary artists interested in its unique interactive capacities.
Media
Schedule
from June 21, 2015 to July 12, 2015
Opening Reception on 2015-06-20 from 14:00 to 17:00