All Systems Fail |
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Through the past century pictorial and linear narrative has been turned on its head. It was no longer an effective means for conveying the socio-political mythology of reassurance in the aftermath of two world wars and counting. That task was taken up by the advertisers to reassure and encourage our consumptive culture of desire. Narrative of a different sort fell into the hands of artists like George Grosz, Salvador Dali, Ben Shahn, Phillip Guston and more recently Dinos & Jake Chapman and Robert R. Crumb. These artists and many more have created a potent and dislocated narrative; at times contemplative or combative and often filled with uncertainty accurately representing the world which they witness. It is this lineage that Daniel Heimbinder's work appears to build upon in his second solo exhibition at Clementine Gallery. The gallery is host to several of Heimbinder's large scale ink and watercolor works on paper. Each one, a window into a bizarre, psycho-sexual and violent drama which draws you into the anxiety of the story unfolding. "Blue Yodel #13", accurately sub titled "Insult as Injury" is perhaps the most compelling image with its use of a striking single male figure. He stands in the foreground of a clothesline bedecked city street. Comically clothed in only a barrel with the remnants of an exploded cigar in his mouth, a hobo's sack on a stick slung over his shoulder and surrounded by opportunities for disaster. From the matches wedged between his toes ripe for a hot-foot to the scattered rakes waiting for a slapstick moment the protagonist of this tale is in mid step for mishap. That anxious comic relief successfully sustains so much of the work in this show. Heimbinder's emotive versatility can be unsettling at times in works such as "Charm Bracelet" which depicts a saccharine sweet parade of rain deer with needles instead of hooves trampling over the anthropomorphic arm attached to a figure reminiscent of a Dali painting or a Monty Python cartoon. Heimbinder's skill is clear. He has a strong sense of line and color
and is adept at using it to render the world as he bares witness to it's
absurdities with a dark comic sensibility which gives pause in this culture
of desire and distraction. - Andrew Robinson Exhibition InformationMay 27 - June 26, 2004 Clementine Gallery |
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