FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JASON MARTIN
wants to be a punk rocker
April 17 – May 16, 2009
Renwick Gallery is pleased to present Jason Martin's premiere exhibition Jason Martin wants to be a punk rocker. Jason Martin is a new collaboration between emerging artist Jason Kraus and established artist Martin Kersels. The exhibition includes sculpture, video, drawing, and photography.
Jason Martin wants to be a Punk Rocker demonstrates a shared interest in play, music, and entropy, both as a physical and cultural process. Jason Martin engages with the Los Angeles tradition of performance, process-oriented production of work and experimentation with materials. Their interest in play is a reaction to a type of dogmatic work that they feel diminishes the visual pleasure of viewing. In their mind, music is an extremely powerful cultural force with a history of entropy, and within the form of rock, punk rock is the quintessential model of a system of failure and ultimate destruction. Punk rock was a fantasy in the DIY style, which eventually broke apart, enacting the failure that defined it.
The sculptural centerpiece of the exhibition is "Untitled (wrecking ball)". The suspended, gigantic-sized microphone top is pulled by a motor and released to crash upon a hanging wall. Through this direct catch and release a performative action is created as a stand in for the artist's physicality. The overly large microphone becomes an active agent reigning terror on an inactive surface. Another work, "Hanged in the Shower" mirrors this action. There, a regular-sized microphone attached to a gooseneck stand slowly rises from and quickly drops to the ground with a very audible thwap. These two works mimic the mythological destruction enacted by rock gods such as The Who or Nirvana. The drawing/photo diptychs and singular drawings provide a visual space for the artists to engage in a call and response format, much as musicians switch leads during a concert.
This is the first show of the Jason Martin collaboration. Both artists live and work in Los Angeles. Martin Kersels' recent exhibitions include, "Martin Kersels: Heavyweight Champion" Sept. 2008 Santa Monica Museum of Art; "Fat Iggy", March 2009 at Guido Costa Projects; and "Headache" Oct. 2008 at ACME. Jason Kraus' recent exhibitions include "Looking On" , a two-part exhibition at Rental Gallery, NY, and Redling Fine Art, LA, January 2009; and his work can be seen currently in "1999" at China Art Objects, LA.
For additional information, please contact Christine Messineo at 212-609-3535 or email christine@renwickgallery.com.