David B. Frye “Milking the Golden Bull”
Wayfarers
This event has ended.
Curated by Mary Gagler
Milking the Golden Bull is an exhibition of new works by David B. Frye, curated by Mary Gagler. A series of paintings on panel in carved wooden frames and a mechanical wood sculpture elucidate contemporary takes on the Biblical story of worshiping the golden calf. In Frye’s hands, the story grows to reflect all manner of contemporary rituals of forgetting, misplaced adoration, and greed.
The series of paintings on panel elaborate on the cautionary tale of worshipping the golden calf as a foundational error of our time. Like stations of the cross, haughty cowhands seek out the bull, arrive at the stable and set about milking. In most of the images, the process is technically concealed, but left to the viewer to complete it in their mind. A new kinetic wood sculpture shows the viewer what milking a bull entails.
The Golden Bull motif is the golden calf of the Bible, all grown up. The functional milking stool sold back to us as a souped-up readymade, depicting an automated portrait of excess. Regarding the Biblical roots of the story, Frye states that “the Ancient Isrealtes were on a journey to a new place, and one would think informed by the realities of their deliverance. They had after all witnessed divine intervention, miracles, and the fury of God himself. Yet the uncertainty of waiting got to them. So, it is with us.” Frye shows us humanity in a state similar to that of the Ancient Israelites: stuck between the discoveries and innovations of our past and the world of equality and plenty that we hope is our future. Here we are, uncertain about waiting.
Paintings on wood panel show humanity traveling through time with the golden calf as it multiplies and matures. The golden calf comes down from the pedestal of worship and into a more complex relationship with the worshiper as the Golden Bull. Frye depicts scenes of predecessors and contemporaries in various stages of worship of the false idol. Frye reflects on the colloquialism stating that “milking a bull is about futility, backwardness, the fool’s errand. It is not the first picture that forms in the mind’s eye when one thinks of dairy farms. Rather it is meant as a metaphor for our time. Our age when we have forgotten our miracles, whatever their source.”
Part idolatry and part homage to these forgotten miracles, Milking the Golden Bull depicts scenes from the early days evolving into the distracting world of the spectacle in late Capitalism.
Milking the Golden Bull is being extended to its location at Wayfarers from Spring Break Art Fair, and has been featured in Art News, Arcade Project, and the New York Times on two occasions. It will be on view at Wayfarers (1109 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn) through Sunday, March 29th.
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Schedule
from March 13, 2020 to March 29, 2020
Opening Reception on 2020-03-13 from 19:00 to 22:00