"Jacklighting"

January 27, 2020

French artist Anne-Charlotte Finel presents Jacklighting at The Chimney for her first solo show in the US. Referring to the nocturnal hunting practice of shining bright lights throughout dark fields in order to momentarily stun animals, Jacklighting proves itself both weird and wonderful. Finel's work, focused on spaces affected by unnatural lighting systems, is composed of four reels. And with each video being manipulated both digitally and physically, the story from viewer to viewer may be rather ambiguous.

In Triste Champignonniste (Sad Mushroom Farmer), 2017, Finel films a mushroom farm in a former underground gypsum quarry—although it may look more like the ground for a nuclear bomb shelter as bursting shapes and foggy landscapes are cast upon a pink velvet backdrop. Only upon closer inspection may one gradually discern the actual rotting of elements played upon the deteriorating pixels of the film for a versatile look on decomposition.

As is the case with all of the show’s remaining components, nothing is quite as it seems in Jacklighting. The rhythm of the subjects and the landscapes of the environment speak to the title’s permanent state through the relationship between man and nature, attesting to Finel’s expertise in observing the unordinary and inclination to search for truth in the otherwise vastly unseen.

Text by Caroline Brown
Photos courtesy of The Chimney and the artist; Photography by Reggie Shiobara

Jacklighting is on view at The Chimney until February 23, 2020.

Art

God the Desecrator: Dr. Lakra

November 05, 2019

There’s a fine line between attraction and repulsion, and it’s in that tight, often neglected space that Mexican artist Dr. Lakra lives and works. Combining practices of both tattoo and collage, his work is a kind of punk rock love letter to the outsider, both in the Mexican underground where he cut his teeth as a young DIY artist, and in the world at large.

He embellishes classic, vintage and religious imagery with tattoos in his own cut-and-paste neo-Surrealist style, depicting a Catholic nun or a traditional pin-up without her skin, or adorning her in ink with the word “puta” emblazoned on her palm. It’s grotesque but somehow sexy; pretty yet undeniably macabre.

His materials explore the same dichotomy—worn old postcards and delicate paintings overlaid with rudimentary pen marks—yet another example of how the artist, born Jerónimo López Ramírez, makes opposites attract.

Text by Alexandra Weiss
Images Curated by Noah Khoshbin

Image courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City. Photo by Estudio Michel Zabé.

(Above) Untitled (Así soy yo), 2009 Ink and acrylic on vintage magazine page.

Left - Sin título / Untitled (lo que rodea), 2004 Ink on dossier magazine.

Right - Untitled, 2015 Ink on vintage magazine.

Left - Untitled (Showing her profile), 2012 Ink on vintage postcard (1933).

Right - Sin título / Untitled (chocolatitos), 2003 Acrylic on digital print on cotton paper.

Left - Sin título / Untitled (niña con guantes), 2007 Ink on vintage magazine page.

Right - Untitled (Tab. 52), 2009 Ink on vintage lithography.

Left - Sin título / Untitled (Portada verde), 2003 Mixed media on antique magazine.

Right - Untitled, 2015 Ink on vintage magazine.

Left - Sin título / Untitled (Nalgas), 2003 Ink on antique magazine.

Right - Untitled (Todo/Nada), 2009 Ink on vintage lithography.

Art

House of Mirrors

Each of these objects carries personal and cultural histories that relate back to Vo’s background as a Vietnamese-born Danish artist … and horror movie buff. The hand-written calligraphy is from Vo’s father, the wood furniture is derived from the family of Robert McNamara, the US Secretary of Defense that oversaw the Vietnam War. The juxtapositions of these uniquely fabricated objects are like dots that the artist has seemingly arranged for the viewer to connect. But any meaning one might try to construct from the works gets interrupted, again and again, by the abrupt reality of seeing one’s own reflection—full-length and crystal-clear—in the mirrored walls of the show. That’s when the narrative shifts to checking out the others in the room, fixing your hair, or sucking in your gut (which the author wouldn’t know anything about).

Vo said in his press briefing before the opening that this exhibition falls on his 44th birthday — a mid-point in his life and career that calls for a moment of pause and reflection. This seems apt, as reflections are indeed all one sees in Vo’s show, whether literal or figurative.

Danh Vo is up through December 14, 2019, at kurimanzutto, Mexico City.

Art

K.U.N.S.T.: Jonathan Meese

With its signature black metal-meets-Basquiat aesthetic, his work exists in an alternate realm where revolution is mandatory—and his is the voice behind the bullhorn. The result? Kunst wird die totalste regierungsform—art becomes the most complete form of government—with Meese’s anarchic illustrations and canvases covered in truth-vomit providing the propaganda.