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.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Walead Beshty "Equivalents" @ Regen Projects


Office Work (Canon imageCLASS MF8380Cdw Color Laser All-in-One Printer, Copier, Scanner, Fax)2018
Canon imageCLASS MF8380Cdw Color Laser All-in-One Printer, Copier, Scanner, Fax and steel
Dimension variable





Copper Surrogates (60” x 120” 48 ounce C11000 Copper Alloy, 45º/45º/90º: February 23–27, 2018, Los Angeles, California), 2018
Polished copper
Dimensions, each: 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 15 1/16 inches (59.7 x 59.7 x 38.3 cm) each, 8 parts



Between two things, there is a disconnect, a loss, some kind of irreconcilable difference. Between things, there are irreconcilable differences. 




Sharp PN-LE901 90-inch HD 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV, 2018
Sharp PN-LE901 90-inch HD 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV
80 7/8 x 47 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches (205.4 x 121.1 x 11.4 cm)




What’s behind an image? Poor handling? Poor design? 


Inverted RA4 Contact Print / Processor Stall (YM: Los Angeles, California, November 22, 2017; Fujicolor Crystal Archive Super Type C, Em. No. 152-017; Kodak Ektacolor RA Bleach-Fix and Replenisher; Kreonite KM IV 5225 RA4 Color Processor, Ser. No. 00092174; 42517), 2018
Color photographic paper
136 1/2 x 101 3/4 x 2 5/8 inches (346.7 x 258.4 x 6.7 cm)




Office Work (Apple iMac A1419 27-inch 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5)2018
Apple iMac A1419 27-inch 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5 and steel
Dimension variable



A looping system going haywire/awry. 

Powering on or reboot. Familiar sound. 

Appreciating deconstruction/destruction as a kind of synthesis. Multiplication as division. 

Cutttng a flat screen in half and reorienting by turning on its side. 
Also flatness and depth as architectural play. A nod to Morgan Fisher. See next image:


Morgan Fisher 
Door and Window Paintings, 2002
Acrylic on cotton on wood
Installation view, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein



Sharp PN-LE901 90-inch HD 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV2018
Sharp PN-LE901 90-inch HD 1080p LED-backlit LCD TV
80 7/8 x 47 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches (205.4 x 121.1 x 11.4 cm)












Body Prints (Valsartan 160 Mg Tablet [January 27, 2017]/Left Dorsum; Azithromycin 250 Mg Dose Pack [November 19, 2015]/Left Zygomatic Bone and Attending Soft Tissues), 2018
Etched copper-clad FR-4 glass-reinforced epoxy laminate board
Dimensions, each: 12 x 6 inches (30.5 x 15.2 cm) 2 parts


Viral. Personal transparency attempt. 






Copper Surrogates (48” x 120” 48 ounce C11000 Copper Alloy, 45º/45º/90º: February 23–27, 2018, Los Angeles, California), 2018
Polished copper
Dimensions, each: 18 1/2 x 14 1/16 x 18 1/2 inches (47 x 35.7 x 47 cm) 8 parts





Samsung UN55KU7500 Curved 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV, 2018
Samsung UN55KU7500 Curved 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV
48 1/2 x 28 1/8 x 3 7/8 inches


What seems solid may be much thinner than you think?


Cutting holes through. Shooting holes (through theories).  VirtualActual. 




Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, The New York Times International Edition, Distributed with The Japan Times, Thursday, March 23, 2017), 2017
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Framed Dimensions: 43 5/8 x 33 1/8 inches (110.8 x 84.1 cm)

and

Blind Collage (Four 180° Rotations, The New York Times International Edition, Distributed with The Japan Times, Friday, March 24, 2017), 2017
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Framed Dimensions: 43 5/8 x 33 1/8 inches (110.8 x 84.1 cm)



Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, February 27, 2018), 2018
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Framed Dimensions: 34 1/2 x 33 3/4 inches (87.6 x 85.7 cm)


Print media. Layers. Optics. Targets. Reorienting information. Truth in financial desire equates with true, human-interest stories. 

Currency. The sound of production is its own demise. Uneven exchange?



Blind Collage (Three 180° Rotations, Los Angeles Times, Friday, March 2, 2018), 2018
Newspaper, tape, and 22 karat gold leaf
Framed Dimensions: 34 1/2 x 33 3/4 inches (87.6 x 85.7 cm)


Split reflections. 
Surveillance.


The first thing I thought about upon entering this current exhibition "Equivalents" by Walead Beshty and seeing "Office Work (Canon imageCLASS MF8380Cdw Color Laser All-in-One Printer, Copier, Scanner, Fax)was an artwork by Isa Genzken, from an exhibition organized by Walead Beshty in 2010 titled "Picture Industry (Goodbye to All That)." See here for dayoutlast coverage of that exhibition. See below for image and details of the Genzken:


 Untitled," 2006
Plastic, metal, floor lamp, artichokes, adhesive tape, spray paint, lacquer, coconut fibre, and cable
79 x 17 x 17 1/2 inches 

While not exactly the same works formally, their concepts seemed intertwined, especially as it pertains to the humane, the upright, the mechanical, power, etc...  In fact, my words from 2010 were as follows:

"When a body can be thought about as mostly a system of synthetic parts, fluid ones that attach to power structures, I know I'm seeing a reflection of the now (at least partially metaphorical). I'm torn between fascination and disgust, perhaps a bit like a Warhol car crash (or perhaps an electric chair?)."

And so it is, x amount of years later that Beshty's latest exhibition at Regen projects is a decent approximation of the words.  That said, rather then being a construction of parts both synthetic and natural as the Genzken, Beshty's operates in reverse as a deconstruction (destruction of syntax) of primary office tools (current means of outmoded production).  What the works have in common is enough to cause pause, shift, control, option, delete, and return.









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