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Jason Rhoades The Purple Penis and the Venus (Installed in the Seven Stomachs of Nürnberg) As Part of The Creation Myth |
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Opening: Wednesday, July 1, 1998, 8 p.m. |
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| From July 2 to September 20, 1998, Kunsthalle Nürnberg will present the first
one-person show in Germany of American artist, Jason Rhoades (born 1965 in Newcastle, California; lives and works
in Los Angeles and Zürich). This exhibition will be the most comprehensive overview to date of this young
sculptor's work. Over the past few years, the work of Jason Rhoades has been included in a number of important exhibitions in America and Europe. These include the 1995 and 1997 Whitney Biennials in New York; the Kunsthalle Basel in 1996, the Lyon and Venice Biennials in 1997; the 1998 exhibition 100 Jahre Wiener Secession in Vienna, and the touring exhibition Deep Storage at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. |
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The exhibition presented at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg is Rhoades' first large-scale survey in an institution, providing the artist with a possibility for reflecting on his oeuvre as it evolved over the past seven years. |
| It is not organized as a traditional chronological survey reflecting Rhoades' artistic
development, but rather as an exploration of recurring themes and formal motifs. Many of the earlier works will be rearranged to create one major new piece. This will include parts of the following works: Jason the Mason and the Mason Dixon Linea (1991), More Moore Morals and Morass (1991), Rhoades Construction (1993), Swedish Erotica and Fiero Parts (1994), Car Projects, Uno Momento. A Look to the Physical/Ephemeral (1996). This reinstallation of earlier work will be shown alongside Jason Rhoades' most recent sculpture, The Creation Myth (1998), a work which uses the metaphor of the human body, particularly of the vital organs and the brain, in order to provide an examination of the underlying principles of the creation myth. The context of the Kunsthalle will further develop the metaphor of the human body. With seven consecutive rooms of varying dimensions, the architecture of the exhibition space is reminiscent of a digestive tract. Yet instead of discharging something at the end, the exhibition space processes to use the same metaphor and "ruminates" what it contains, making the art within reusable, digestible and accessible. Jason Rhoades refers to traditions of high Modernism ranging from Constantin Brancusi and Marcel Duchamp to the Minimal Art of the sixties. Everyday culture, especially that of Los Angeles with its sprawling urban structure, ubiquitous cult of the automobile and rampant consumerism, are a continuous point of departure. The California dream fueled originally by frontier spirit and the gold rush then turned to hightech space exploration and esoteric occultism is investigated by Rhoades in his unique type of storytelling. Rhoades not only wants to represent reality in all its material variety, he aims to interpret it. Using cultural phenomena as a means of getting closer to the "essence" of creativity, Rhoades' process of reflection and exploration suggests the manner of a philosopher. The abundance of detail within the installations is never just meaningless baroque detail, but rather each element, however small or big it may be, serves as a conceptual and formal tool to further understand the work. Under the artist's directing hand, the installations become extensive spatial ensembles, encompassing countless objects such as colorful buckets, fluorescent tubes, various plastic products and basic electronic equipment, obtained from shopping centers and do-it- yourself stores. It is important to know that almost all material in Rhoades' work are new, store-bought products. The installations can be read on various levels ranging from the literal to the metaphorical. The narratives with their complex interconnections and overlapping ideas are constantly in flux. The dialogue between the work and the viewer is the necessary tool with which meaning is produced in Jason Rhoades' artwork. With the scope of his work and the depth of his many ideas, Rhoades poses a constant challenge to his audience. The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg will be accompanied by the first comprehensive monograph of the artist's work. This publication entitled, VOLUME A Rhoades Referenz, will be in the form of an encyclopedia and will offer an index for deciphering and connecting Jason Rhoades' numerous works and metaphorical statements. The publication is sponsored by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation as part of its program Catalogues for Young Artists. |
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Curator *** |
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Kontakt Kunsthalle Nürnberg: kuh@stadt.nuernberg.de
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