One More ThingFrom street culture to car crashes Barry McGee's installation "One More Thing" at Deitch Projects captures the ethos of a dispossessed, downwardly mobile, crapped out American culture. The installation assaults the senses, from the entrance, which is through the back of an overturned truck, into the main gallery dominated by a car crash pile up, video monitors stacked and buzzing. A rhythmic beat drones on from an unseen source. "SMASH THE STATE" is spray painted across a large caricature of Dick Cheney's face. In the back of the gallery, is a reproduction of a graffiti-covered public toilet. Covering the walls of the entire space is an expanse of panels with vibrating colored patterns, grim looking caricatures, pot bellied and smirking morose expressions. Atop one car crash is an animatronic totem of five life size figures stacked upon each other's shoulders. The figure poised on top of his friends spray paints the word "amaze" on the gallery wall. McGee's work responds with disdain to the assault of global advertising propaganda and contains a very American groundswell of radical optimism. From his roots as a graffiti artist in the 1980's street, skate and surfing culture of San Francisco, McGee taps into a diverse artistic lineage. An affinity with artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring is apparent. The socio-political power of David Wojnarowicz, Gran Fury and Philip Guston's later works also resonate in McGee's art. The real strength of the installation can be found in an undercurrent of poetic visual language that balances this spectacle with formal tactics utilized by artists like Bridget Riley or Constantin Brancusi whose modern interpretation of the primitive totem in "Endless Column" captured the essence of form which emulated in "untitled (5 Tagger Installation)". McGee gathers all these giants to stand on their shoulders and "tag" a vision of contemporary life on the streets and gallery walls. A vision of America conveyed through a gritty urban vocabulary. And this urban language is particularly relevant today since nearly 80 percent of Americans live in urban communities; communities where economic disparities and social struggles are pervasive and yet ignored across a landscape of billboards and branded public spaces. McGee's rebellion through graffiti and installation give a voice to an apathetic and ignored America and offers a resilient call for resistance. By Andrew Cornell Robinson Exhibition Information:May 7 - August 13, 2005 Deitch Projects Related Links:Barry
McGee on Art 21, PBS
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your comments Untitled (68 Bottle Installation) Detail, 2005, Acrylic on glass, dimensions variable  Untitled (5 Tagger Installation), 2005, Mixed media, variable dimensions  *One More Thing, Installation Detail, 2005, Mixed media  *One More Thing, Installation Detail, 2005, Mixed media *Images courtesy: Deitch Projects View more installation images at Deitch Projects 
Random Quote "It's about the idea of public space and how people can function in public space anywhere. It's gotten tighter and tighter, since the Reagan-Bush era - the idea of private space and who can go into this space or a park - what is considered a park now. As those things get tighter and tighter and privately owned property and surveillance and what not is increased, so is this thing on the street. It also increases too for some odd reason. And I'm not exactly sure why it's that way, but I find it really interesting how quickly they want to get rid of this thing. There could be a rooftop that is just sitting dormant for a while, and someone goes up there and does an amazing piece of graffiti or whatever you want to call it. And then that's removed and two months later there's a huge billboard over the whole spot anyway." - Barry McGee, on Public and Private Space, interview excerpt from Art 21 |
