Chris Duncan "The Faith Void Split"
Jeff Bailey Gallery
This event has ended.
The exhibition title is taken from the album The Faith/Void Split (1982) by Washington D.C. hardcore groups The Faith and Void (Dischord Records). Faith's music is introspective and hopeful, while The Void's is dark and wildly chaotic. The album was released when Duncan was eight years old, but he heard it for the first time several years later, in his early teens. Duncan says that he "was completely blown away by the album and that to this day it has a tremendous amount of energy and power" for him.
The split LP juxtaposes two incredibly different sounds and experiences. In Duncan's mixed media works, stark color contrasts of light and dark seek to bridge opposing forces: between positive and negative, hopeful and despairing.
In Duncan's paintings and drawings, abstract patterns, spirals and vaporous forms float within vast indeterminate, galaxy-like spaces. In the painting A New Way to Cope, a large multi-colored spiral, composed of primary colors in compressed angular shapes, spins and swirls in a blackened space. Rays of light in different hues surround this kaleidoscope shape, while thin clouds float and drift nearby. The darkness goes to the edge of the painting, while each side of the work is painted in a bright color, causing a slight outward glow.
The entrance of the exhibition is through a ten foot tall triangle, White Threshold. Two of the gallery walls are painted black, and two are white. A "string burst" sculpture in white covers one of the black walls. In the center of the gallery, an installation, titled What's Left, features a hanging globe shape covered in shards of multi-colored paint. A mirror lies beneath it, which reflects a bright stark light.
Throughout the exhibition, a mix of materials (acrylic, enamel and spray paint, ink, gouache, graphite, colored pencil, wood putty, string and plywood) combine with a mix of shapes: triangular, spherical and rectangular. One sculpture is figurative. Ryan Schallenberger features the head of a young man covered in thousands of tiny paint drops, resting on a rock-like torso. His gaze, seemingly fixed, appears blank.
Media
Schedule
from September 04, 2008 to October 04, 2008
Opening Reception on 2008-09-04 from 18:00 to 20:00
Performance by The Urxed.