NYAB Event - Chad Wys “File Not Found”

Chad Wys “File Not Found”

Joseph Gross Gallery

This event has ended.

Joseph Gross Gallery presents File Not Found, a solo exhibition of new works by Chad Wys. File Not Found is Wys’ first exhibition at Joseph Gross Gallery, highlighting the connection between art, information and visual culture.

The visual data we interface with and process in the 21st century is immediate and seemingly easy to interpret, further explained as a steady point often taken for granted in our interaction with reality. If such information, for one reason or the other, loses its character of recognizability, our first reaction might be denial; we may feel overwhelmed by a sense of vertigo while we are forced to recognize that the original information has been altered, an indication of our lack of control. File Not Found refers to the reaction many of us have to information that is perceived as “unfamiliar” because of its absence in our memory or experience: our databases. With this exhibition the artist focuses on the intersection between what we tend to expect from a certain visual experience and the urge to identify what we see. “The title of the show refers to how we process data in the computer/information age,” says the artist. “I often think about how we receive the visual information around us, how casually data is exchanged, and how little we tend to pay attention to what we see. The notion of a ‘file’ not being found, or not being accessible, stops us in our tracks and suddenly we desire to see what we’re not able to see. In other words, we’d probably ignore the information if it was presented to us normally, but since it’s not being presented to us, or since it’s not deliverable, our curiosity is stimulated and we suddenly wish to see it, if only to ignore it once again thereafter. I think this applies to the world at large, and certainly to my work, where I often remove data from the audience’s view. We desire and want data until we receive it. We only consider more deeply data that we don’t understand, and we take for granted the data we think we already know,” he concludes. In an attempt to evoke the charm of the past without forgetting the present, Chad Wys aims to challenge the audience with a series of works that seem to describe perfectly the juxtaposition of information and lack of information. Furthermore, through an elaborate appropriation of form and function, identity and meaning, he plays with his found objects and their significance to modify the original information related to such objects. The artist redefines both image and frame of his found objects with a layer of paint (horizontal, diagonal or vertical bars) and invites the viewers to experience what only their imagination can identify as an invisible and yet perceivable reality. He also covers the figurative subjects of his sculptures with unusual marks and materials by altering the original shape and context. This method he calls “mark making,” involves concealing and adding information at the same time. Chad Wys manipulates both physical and conceptual aspects of the original object to analyze and question the object itself and ultimately give rise to further possibilities of meaning. His work is related to visual communication and saturated with references to art history, psychology, and aesthetics. Chad’s pilgrimage to local antique shops, flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, and charity shops is an important part of the process that allows him to individuate the objects and materials required to create his readymades. Wys often incorporates the place where he sourced the object into the title of the work itself—e.g. Calibrating A Thrift Store Landscape. Inferior decorations that attempt to mimic fine art and high quality ornamentation of a by-gone time are often his inspiration. The more evidence the object has of its former life, in the form of wear and tear, dust, breakage, or fading, the more he’s drawn to it. The artist wants to present to the viewer the journey he’s made in finding the object as well as the journey—the use and history—inherent in the object itself. For the materials he prefers to use consumer-grade supplies. The glitter, glue, spray paint, and acrylic can be sourced at a typical hardware or craft supply store. In this way, the artist means to extend the essence of a mass produced object to the creative materials with which he adorns them.