dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

JPW3 @ Night Gallery



















































First Thoughts:
There's something nice about the way the wax has evolved, spun off the wheels and onto the wall.   Burning rubber has been metaphorically displaced by wax, a measure of time, certainly as candles and encaustic paintings are concerned. A central axis... Elements of the studio or the narrative given by other elements (the handbag or popcorn displacement) take me away from the revery of really nice work (like the multilayered wax sculptures on both wall and floor). I'd rather not have my nose rubbed in shit, if even aesthetically. I get that speed is of the essence and that accidents happen, but I'm looking for determined intentionality especially as it applies to some of the really nice layered works in this show. What we experience here in terms of visual alchemy pairs and reflects nicely with the audio elements that immerse the installation. Low and high frequencies (again, speed) permeate and percolate without ever resolving into a coherent image, at least not anyone I can place immediately. As such, and again, I can do without the concrete references that narrow my view but for no discernible value other than to demonstrate the terror of the crossroads or perhaps the transition between abstract and concrete reference. We are always reinventing the wheel. The question remains here, to what end?  Nice job bringing a third sense into the room; the candle aromas are effective in complicating what could otherwise be construed as ruinous, new age aesthetics.

(See here for my post of his previous exhibition involving wax at Las Cienegas Projects). 

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