Delusions of Grandeur September 19 - November 7, 2008
Opening reception: Friday, September 19, 6:30-10pm Gallery hours: 3-5pm Saturdays and by appointment.
Curated by Megan Carr & Adam Blumberg (Philadelphia, PA) Featured artists: Michael Eddy (Frankfurt, Germany), Nick Lucking (Los Angeles, CA), Jamie Lund (New York, NY), Mike Olenick (Columbus, OH), John PHotos (Albequerque, NM), Ben Skinner (Vancouver, BC), and James Webb (Cape Town, South Africa).
The clinical term "delusions of grandeur" refers to fantasies of wealth, power of omnipotence, ideas of a grandiose nature or extravagant things or actions. but as a popular euphemism, the term lends itself to how daydreams truly inspire lofty goals and fuel the struggle for the common to attain true originality. Aspiring to be more, but never removing tongue from cheek, the artwork presented explores various stages of this state of bravado such as the preservation of trivial items for posterity, intergalactic communication and the artist as Superman. Also touched upon is the aftermath of these flights of fancy which are often realizations of inadequacy or failure.
Self-Portrait as Clark Kent/Superman by Ohio-based artist Mike Olenick encompasses the ultimate fantasy – average man as the indestructible Christ figure Superman.
Jamie Lund’s My Loss is Your Gain series is a collection of 24KT gilded Polaroids commemorating and simultaneously hiding various events of his twenties. Only known to the artist, the images underneath are forever hidden from the audience and yet presumably preserved under the alluring coating of real gold. While Nick Lucking’s “bronzed” fake ID, I Got My Fake ID Cased in Bronze, But It’s Not Really Bronze It’s Guilder’s Metal, preserves the artist’s youth for posterity and makes a grand leap of faith concerning his own future greatness.
Saturday Night Can be the Loneliest Place on Earth is South African artist, James Webb’s documentation of his noblest attempt to transform a very lonely space themed amusement park into a beacon for intergalactic communications. For this site-specific intervention Webb hacked into Space World’s parking lot public address system allowing the southern Japanese theme park to receive actual transmissions from space.
A play on consumerism and globalization, Ben Skinner’s Everything You’ve Ever Wanted in Your Entire Life represents a retail store awning that promises the world and more.
Michael Eddy’s series of photographs of public art, entitled Gestalt, plays with the notions of one artist documenting other artists’ interpretation of monuments and the events (some tragic) surrounding them.
John Photos’ work combines humor and humility resulting in bittersweet admission of futility and failure. An Actual List that I Don’t Remember Making is photographic documentation of a to-do list filled with both honesty and good intentions while a simple self portrait of the artist as Wile E. Coyote can be seen as a self-effacing gesture.
