Chris Wolston “Bongo Bongo”

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HANJOB Gallery/Store presents Bongo Bongo by Chris Wolston - the first in a series of design-focused exhibitions that will take over our Brooklyn, NY storefront. Bongo Bongo is a solo exhibition of neon lighting works called “Fetish Lights” by contemporary artist and designer Chris Wolston.

Popular conspiracy theory claims that the similar creation times of cave paintings around the world point to alien invaders. Cave paintings are something that feels like a baseline human instinct – a hand drawing the way a hand knows, not being driven by a logical brain and ruler. Could aliens, in fast-moving spaceships be connected to this same spirit, reflexively depicting what they were seeing around them? “In creating these objects, and working between Colombia and New York I can feel a bit connected to this seeming disparity,” says Wolston. “Making the Fetishes, punching my fingers into a sand box, I felt tuned in to this archetypal spirit of creation. I’m expressing the human form in a primitive way. The neon felt like it outlined our idea of the future, a high-tech creation. But in reality these lines, bent with delicate hands, following quick outlines, are not unlike a cave painting made by an alien.”

For his solo exhibition at HJGS, Chris Wolston presents an installation of these seemingly raw and primitive lighting objects in a beautiful installation that will encompass the entire HJGS storefront, transforming it into an almost alien space of worship.

Chris Wolston is an artist based in New York City whose work explores the material vernacular of the modern day and the fetishization of process. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Fulbright grant to Colombia. Inspired by manual techniques and the regional contrasts between his Brooklyn and Medellin studios, Wolston creates work that demonstrates playful adaptations of materials, often mixing high- and low-tech processes. Wolston’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of American Glass, and the Museo de Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia.