The works are simple and unpolished contour-line drawings in the style of newspaper comic strips. They are satirical, ironic, and often pejorative political and cultural commentaries on the places he was visiting — jokes in short. Many dig into the East/West cultural conflation issues: A "typical" suicide bomber strapped with explosives holds the trigger and boasts his "0.05 seconds of fame," drawing from the American entertainment adage. Many others poke at the art world: One shows a working figure, complete with hard-hat and building material, and asks another "what do you do for living?" The other unburdened and unoccupied figure replies, "installations." One could argue these drawings are a cartoonist's homework, but Perjovschi's humorous approach to cultural critique is worth a look, and a chuckle.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Dan Perjovschi drawings at Lombard-Freid, until Feb. 20
Currently on view at Lombard-Freid is Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi's Postcards from the World, where hundreds of drawings on 4x6 inch cards are neatly pinned to the wall and organized into semi-discreet blocks. As the show's title suggests, these drawings are documents of Perjovschi's thoughts and observations whiling traveling around the world, organized geographically. The majority comes from Europe and North America, while the Middle and Far East, South America, and Australia have their place. These are extensions of his 1994 project Postcards from America, which has its own grid-block on cardboard on the wall, but looks its age. The back room holds the work-in-progress of real postcards sent to the gallery, which show more signs of wear and processing consistent travel and the post.
The works are simple and unpolished contour-line drawings in the style of newspaper comic strips. They are satirical, ironic, and often pejorative political and cultural commentaries on the places he was visiting — jokes in short. Many dig into the East/West cultural conflation issues: A "typical" suicide bomber strapped with explosives holds the trigger and boasts his "0.05 seconds of fame," drawing from the American entertainment adage. Many others poke at the art world: One shows a working figure, complete with hard-hat and building material, and asks another "what do you do for living?" The other unburdened and unoccupied figure replies, "installations." One could argue these drawings are a cartoonist's homework, but Perjovschi's humorous approach to cultural critique is worth a look, and a chuckle.
The works are simple and unpolished contour-line drawings in the style of newspaper comic strips. They are satirical, ironic, and often pejorative political and cultural commentaries on the places he was visiting — jokes in short. Many dig into the East/West cultural conflation issues: A "typical" suicide bomber strapped with explosives holds the trigger and boasts his "0.05 seconds of fame," drawing from the American entertainment adage. Many others poke at the art world: One shows a working figure, complete with hard-hat and building material, and asks another "what do you do for living?" The other unburdened and unoccupied figure replies, "installations." One could argue these drawings are a cartoonist's homework, but Perjovschi's humorous approach to cultural critique is worth a look, and a chuckle.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"Blind Sculpture"
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole performance installation was a play on art as well as a play on non conformity. The performers set themselves up to exploit their established art careers with a witty and staged exhibition of making something less serious and less expected of themselves. Different artists collaborated for a couple of hours each afternoon for a week elaborating on the previous artists sightless artistic efforts in Robert Rymanesque palette of mostly all white. The shapes that were created had whimsy to them, almost like some kind of abstract pinata whose goodies were already on the outside. As an extra comical effect to the mini series semi-serious art drama was the dress code or lack of one, maybe this was code for the whole piece in general and the operation as a whole.
"Postcards from the World"
ReplyDeleteI think the critical eye might be slightly lacking in concerning this work, that Perjovschi's postcards operate more capably than simply as jokes (or perhaps, that as jokes they can speak to a greater number of levels than the review indicates.) While many of the pieces come across as simple one liners, there's a cohesion to the mass of them that elicits deeper cultural trends, and by segmenting the work into areas the postcards are from, one can begin to see a global partitioning, and the work talks about where there is a lack of cosmopolitanism around the world as much as the work acts as a record of Perjovschi's attempts to defy borders himself.
Response - Blind Sculpture
ReplyDeleteWell done, descriptive and informative. The name of the exhibition and the gallery was introduced and your description of the concept behind this beehive gathering was appreciative. Now, about this beehive of art activity which is what it merely was. Should we reward art activity? Is this what our current artist endeavors come to; a publicity event where all you need is famous brand name artists to “assist” in an ironic fashion other blinded artists who need a helping hand to make sculpture. And all the was done in the name of art and proclaiming it wearing comedic dresses and the ever present of liquor. I will be assertive and speak of this sculpture as assisted group exercises where the results can be seen in the space where it was made. I enjoy reading your Blog post than the actual art event, sometimes art looks better on paper than when executed.