Dean Levin “Exterior objects for Interior use”

The National Exemplar

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The National Exemplar presents “Exterior objects for interior use,” an installation of new works by Dean Levin. Pulling from an array of references culled during a recent trip to Japan, Levin presents a rain chain (kusari doi) and bus stop bench, stripped of their use value by being placed in an atypical environment. The rain chain carries historical associations of Eastern outdoor design and irrigation, and the bus stop bench conveys social implications of urban design and public functionality. The former is an alternative to the closed downspouts so commonly seen in Western architecture. The latter is inspired by Shiro Kuramata’s 1983 design for an oft-neglected piece of public furniture. Levin was initially struck by how these forms resonate with Western modernist design and architecture. It’s within this context that he questions the history of modernism, and its longstanding engagement with Eastern traditions.

A background in architecture informs Levin’s study of space and objects. Through various media, he melds industrial and traditional art materials and techniques. This implicit tension is indicative of his ongoing interest in mechanical reproduction versus the “hand of the artist.” Similarly, Levin deftly expands upon the language of modernism in his work—the grid, seriality, modularity, and the viewer-centric phenomenological experience are all important facets of his practice.

In line with this, Levin is interested in how the rain chain consists of links that transport water from a roof to a holding barrel or garden, and in how Kuramata’s bench was designed with three curves and depends on a grid mesh design to distribute weight evenly to prevent buildup of precipitation. Levin designed his own aluminum chains based on drawings, and applied his hand-drawn grid patterns to the aluminum mesh design originated by Kuramata, as well as fashioned the proportions of the bench from the measurements of his body. This brings to bear the vocabulary Levin has developed over the past few years, fusing systems-based patterning with the hand-drawn, and rigorously extends the legacy of modernism, while questioning its origins and inspirations.

Dean Levin (b. 1988 Johannesburg, South Africa) received his Bachelors of Architecture from Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NY in 2012. He will have a solo exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York in the fall of 2017, His work has been shown internationally at spaces such as Kohn Gallery and Roberts and Tilton, Los Angeles, CA; Bill Brady Gallery, Kansas City, MO; Luring Augustine, Sean Kelly, Marianne Boesky, New York, NY; Super Dakota, Brussels, Belgium; Berthold Pott, Cologne, Germany; Galleria Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain; Rod Barton and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, UK ; Coma, Sydney, Australia, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL