Industrial Reconstructions
David Jones and Marilyn Propp
Exhibition: March 5 - March 23, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, March 9, 5-7pm
Together our work sets up an ongoing dialogue and tension regarding our culture’s dependent but often uncomfortable relationship with industry (in particular those which impact the environment) and its conflict with sustainability and the world’s ecosystems. David Jones speaks to the thoughtlessness with which people accumulate and discard, without thinking about the global impact this may have. Marilyn Propp addresses the effects of ongoing disasters caused by carelessness or greed. We both use engine and machine parts as source material, transforming them into animated biomorphic forms.
Jones’ concerns relate to proliferation and excess consumption. His work has evolved over a fascination with and participation in the California Car Culture. His early experiences with building engines, taking and documenting road trips, photographing junkyards and now drawing on paper, bring the images and memories full circle. He takes images from automobile parts schematics, using a semi-blind contour method to create organic pen drawings of machines that neither function nor propel. These drawings are enlarged and hand-printed using the processes of Xerox transfer and paper-plate lithography.
Machines fill space and are then discarded when no longer needed. “In reality through excess consumption we are filling our places with broken machines, with dysfunctional cogs and wheels. I see the drawings and prints as a metaphor for our own relationship with things, filling up space, entangling our lives and in time breaking down and decaying.”
Propp is concerned with the clash/coexistence between the industrial and the natural worlds. The circular format of her paintings and its structure of individual puzzle-pieces address issues of interdependence, interconnectedness, and continuity. She creates morphing and interaction between organic and metal shapes (tools, hardware, pipes and conduits).
To begin, she cuts out irregularly shaped wood panels and then uses automatic writing, making gestural calligraphic marks that reflect the movement of her arm/body as she moves across the surface of the panels. The imagery results from the rhythm and suggestions of the black marks on the white surface. The objects reference machine parts, industrial tools, and personal objects, and recently, under sea forms. Three-dimensional tableaus, which she creates from crushed tailpipes and other metal detritus found in alleys and streets, are studies in rhythm that assist in her visual thinking.
Jones’ concerns relate to proliferation and excess consumption. His work has evolved over a fascination with and participation in the California Car Culture. His early experiences with building engines, taking and documenting road trips, photographing junkyards and now drawing on paper, bring the images and memories full circle. He takes images from automobile parts schematics, using a semi-blind contour method to create organic pen drawings of machines that neither function nor propel. These drawings are enlarged and hand-printed using the processes of Xerox transfer and paper-plate lithography.
Machines fill space and are then discarded when no longer needed. “In reality through excess consumption we are filling our places with broken machines, with dysfunctional cogs and wheels. I see the drawings and prints as a metaphor for our own relationship with things, filling up space, entangling our lives and in time breaking down and decaying.”
Propp is concerned with the clash/coexistence between the industrial and the natural worlds. The circular format of her paintings and its structure of individual puzzle-pieces address issues of interdependence, interconnectedness, and continuity. She creates morphing and interaction between organic and metal shapes (tools, hardware, pipes and conduits).
To begin, she cuts out irregularly shaped wood panels and then uses automatic writing, making gestural calligraphic marks that reflect the movement of her arm/body as she moves across the surface of the panels. The imagery results from the rhythm and suggestions of the black marks on the white surface. The objects reference machine parts, industrial tools, and personal objects, and recently, under sea forms. Three-dimensional tableaus, which she creates from crushed tailpipes and other metal detritus found in alleys and streets, are studies in rhythm that assist in her visual thinking.
LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University School of the Arts
310 Dodge Hall, 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street), (212) 854-7641
Gallery Hours: Mon - Fri, 9am to 5pm
Closed on Saturday and Sunday
For information on past exhibitions please visit:
The LeRoy Neiman Exhibition Archive
