Patrick Martinez "High, Low and in Between"

Parker's Box

poster for Patrick Martinez "High, Low and in Between"

This event has ended.

The artist' s previous exhibitions at the gallery have borne witness to Martinez' eclectic and prolific practice, providing spectators with memorable sensorial experiences, (large holes smashed in the gallery floor filled with bubbling green liquid…an interactive, optical-effects tunnel animated by rotating colored circles…) as well as striking individual works including smoke sculptures, monumental doodles, laser-cut drawings, and a multitude of experimental videos.

Among the latter, a number of recent works have involved the technique of using series of similar chosen images as the frames of a film. Parker' s Box begins its 2010-2011 season with a special screening of The Hole a week before the opening of High, Low and in Between. The Hole (2008) was produced by filming a zoom into multiple images of holes, creating the impression that we are hurtling into a completely irregular tunnel that has been cut, blasted, drilled and bored into a whole variety of diverse materials. Once again, this work and the two new works presented in the exhibition, High, Low and in Between, use completely contrasting techniques but add their voices to a coherent reflection.

Through his tireless and prolific research and experimentation the artist explores a particularly rich, personal universe in which suggestions of matter and anti-matter share the center stage and become interchangeable. The experiential basis of Martinez' work often simultaneously utilizes objects and materials as the hyperrealist representation of themselves, the suggestion of natural phenomena and/or an abstract expression of particular atmospheres and sensations. In the work titled High, Low and In Between, for example, a number of sheets of Styrofoam are used to create a false ceiling and a platform allows visitors to pass their heads into the space created above the expanse of Styrofoam. While thoughts of an inverted Inuit fishing hole in the polar landscape come easily to mind, a curious and unexpected atmosphere is created by the semi-transparent whiteness of the familiar, cheap material that the artist has used to create this horizontal division of the space. In his most recent projects, Martinez increasingly avoids any temptation to hide or camouflage the mechanisms of his work. While careful use of lighting becomes an important vehicle of atmosphere here, the materials used ultimately represent themselves much more than the illusion of something else. The simplicity of the means allows other layers of metaphor to develop, and the origins of the title (given to both this piece and the exhibition) suggest that the artist welcomes this. "High, Low and In Between" is a country album by Townes Van Zandt (1972), whose use of the phrase would seem to refer to psychological levels, or degrees of depression.

Media

Schedule

from September 17, 2010 to October 17, 2010

Closing Reception on 2010-10-08 from 18:00 to 21:00

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