Opening reception: February 13, 6–8pm
Opening February 13 through March 22, Blum & Poe will exhibit “MDF, particle board, projection, confusion, grid-like structuring,” an installation of sculpture and silk-screens by Los Angeles-based artist Sam Durant.
Succumbing to the source material he has been utilizing as fodder for most of his output of the last two years, Durant now readily admits to its triumph over him. He has subsequently attempted a utilization of this merciless situation by re-introducing content into minimalist forms.
With this exhibition, Durant will seek to reveal the power struggle inherent in the differentiation between the object (the sculpture) and the subject (the viewer), a situation which Michael Fried described in his essay against Minimalism as theatricality ("Art and Objecthood"). For Durant, the theatricality in this relationship is important and he will encourage the subject (the viewer) to "defile" the work by projecting meaning onto it. The subject will get its revenge on the minimal object via such a projection.