KENNETH ANDREW MROCZEK - BLOSSOM TIDES, BLOSSOM SHADOWS
17 NOV 2011 - 01 JAN 2012
OPENING THURSDAY 17 NOV, 6-9pm
Blossom Tides
Blossom Shadows
is in reference to the nature of beauty linked to crime (i.e. what washes to shore, what we are left with...)
The exhibition emerges out of the intersecting interests in aesthetic, conceptual, political, and historical reference points that explore the interstitial moments in art, architecture and literature during the the 19th 20th 21st centuries.
This exhibition draws on the relationship between the day to day aspects of our human condition and its aesthetic exponents. plants inhabiting landscapes
Inspiration is drawn from a vast collective reference pool, such as arts and crafts communities and garden cities anthroposophical narratives, and people Richard Riemerschmid, Gustav Stickley, The Roycrofters, Elbert Hubbard, Charles Limbert, Charles Rohlfs, North Dakota School of Mines, Rudolf Steiner, Vally Wieselthier, Christopher Dresser, Paul Renner, Henry Van de Velde, Ludwig Leybold, Bruno Paul, Bruno Taut, Dagobert Peche, Josef Hoffman, Aldolf Loos, CFA Voysey, Josef Frank, Lothar Schreyer, Sonia Delunay, Bernhard Pancock, Bernhard Hoetgar - Cafe Winowuk, Jacques Emile Ruhlman, Wiener Werkstätte, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, Darmstadt Artist Colony, Roger Fry, Omega Workshops, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Charles Ashbee, Guild of Handicraft, Otto Wagner, William Morris, Walter Pater, Edwin Luytens, Brothers Grimm Fairy tales, Lee Miller, Masanobu Fuokoka to name a few...
The exhibition also explores the influential links of the writings of John Ruskin upon the development of the Arts and Crafts movements emerging as an international style which in turn aided in defining modernism, and how modernism developed into a leading international style, providing a western interior/exterior for colonial frontiers through the reproduction of its assembled image.To be left with the question of how the dominant narrative offunctionalism, shaped the architecture of commerce/ trade; i.e. big box stores, distribution centres, discount stores and the re-purposing of existing structures to suit consumer and residential needs.
The exhibition adopts a centennial frame of reference to the elders of modernism while providing a backdrop for today's news items...to repose a question; How does aesthetics create a scaffold for conversation? How does a decorated interior become a prop for a play, a stage for an event, a space to read and listen, a place for a relaxed moment free from the anxiety of origin?
The materials used to create the work also situate themselves within a conceptual-historical premise. The Oak wood used in the artworks has been ebonized, a technique that gained popularity in western efforts to approximate the appearance of the exotic-colonial hardwood Ebony that flourished within the decorative arts until its exhaustion. The effect is a simple alchemical transformation which is produced by the combination of apple-cider vinegar and iron oxide, the natural chemical reaction with the tannins in the oak produce a deep black, in contrast when iron-oxide is found in Himalayan Salt the result is pink.
While some titles adopt a reference to the reportage of recent news items, other titles make inquiries to historic reference points in the realm of holistic living modalities, bio-dynamic agriculture, and song titles...
1. Waste Not, Want Not (plinth)
2. Als Ik Kan,
As I can; Along the the breaded trail (seat)
3. The Further Privatization of Natural Resources - (totem drawing)
4. The Future of What? Can I tempt you with Natural Disasters - (totem drawing)
5. Which way is Which, A rush to energy - (Nuclear, Fossil, Solar, Hydro, Wind) (marble lamp)
6. Building a Ghosttown (table)
7. Blousing your Pants (black tall table)
8. Fireside, Winterside, Walnuts (fire screen)
9. Towards (heart stool)
10. Border Crossing (low table)
11. More Possibilities than Answers (book case / vitrine)
12. Tidal Swells, Harmonic Energy cast through Distance (circular futon)
13. What we are left With (bookcase / bench)
14. Finding Fruit out of Season - NAFTA (totem)
15. Intertexuality in a quixotic mind (totem)
16. Passing by, Passing through (vitrine)
17. Hot water over Lemons in the morning (curtain)
18. A look into (small drawing)
19. A sound stage never looks up. (frieze)
For the duration of the exhibition past news clips from Democracy Now.org / Al Jazeera English under the title Yesterday's News and recorded lectures, talks, and films will also play in the gallery under the title Lecture Series.
© Kenneth Andrew Mroczek, Explantory notes on the exhibition November 2011.