Brett Wallace “If This, Then What”

ART 3

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BRETT WALLACE IF THIS, THEN WHAT stems from the artist’s interest in the speed and spectacle of production and distribution systems and their impact on society. If This, Then What is a conditional statement where “This” is a hypothesis and “What” is a conclusion. It’s also a deductive reason that the speed of society may create even larger glitches and crashes than we see today.  

Wallace’s works arrive to us out of a glitch he is creating in a production process. In a series of subtly transformed shipping boxes the artist completed in 2016, he laser cuts anodyne statements onto cardboard boxes to expose errors where the ad space on the outside of the box may have been hijacked in the production process (Culture, Hope, Get Big Fast , etc.). From a distance, the text on the boxes looks as if it was printed on the surface, but upon closer inspection, one can peek inside an empty box through the laser cut images. Through the transformed empty shipping boxes, Wallace raises questions about the invisible labor in the extensive systems behind rapid commodification and convenience. He also explores our growing reliance on storage and information containment, physical space and identity. Through shipping the boxes via USPS to direct locations, Wallace wanted to explore the process of shipping as the boxes were transformed by the markings they collected along their journey. Wallace is an artist of intervention - putting objects into the expansive production and distribution apparatus to see what happens - much like the way technology itself intervenes into our daily lives, at times creating glitches we have to deal with.

Wallace is an artist of intervention - putting objects into the expansive production and distribution apparatus to see what happens - much like the way technology itself intervenes into our daily lives, at times creating glitches we have to deal with. His work is held in the permanent collections of LinkedIn Corporation, Suffolk University School of Law, and 1 Beacon Place (Boston). Through an ongoing series of interviews, he is documenting conversations at the intersection of artistic values and cultural production with influential voices in contemporary art including Sharon Louden, Michelle Grabner, Massimiliano Gioni, James Fuentes, and John Yau.