ALL THAT GLITTERS... THE ART OF ROBERT MORGAN
by Phillip March Jones, Linda Blackford, Van Meter Pettit, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Robert Morgan began his art career as a scavenger collecting photos, personal mementos and everyday objects from the homes of young gay men who were the victims of AIDS, alcoholism and drug abuse. These objects, regardless of their original significance, were routinely abandoned or thrown away by families that had little use for the remainders their sons' lives. Blessed with a strong sense of curiosity and a perverse Midas touch, Morgan was able to turn those banal objects into works of art through a complex method of assemblage and adornment. Objects are wrapped, glued and nailed together - infused with religious and personal iconography - and then covered in a thick layer of polyurethane making them glisten and shine like glass. But all that glitters...
Is not gold. It is garbage, junk, trash, detritus, personal, anonymous and all but completely forgotten. It is bottle caps, construction netting, baby dolls and caution tape. But it glitters all the same. The show's title, All That Glitters... is an abbreviated misquote from Shakespeare's original line, "All that glisters is not gold." Morgan's work is the result of a lifelong accumulation of tangible "quotes" - objects taken from the piles of what is left after their original lives have ended. These objects of all shapes and sizes make their way to Morgan's studio and are reassigned meaning by the artist, assembled into the massive altar in the living room, piled in the bedroom or tacked onto a work in progress. Misquoting, re-purposing, re-inventing are the tools that drive Morgan's creative process.
The most recent incarnation of Morgan's accumulative process manifests itself in the form of small army. Saints, warriors and sentries - on foot and on horse - march through the gallery and into the street towards the eager eyes and faces pressed up against the gallery's front window. Created in conjunction with Lexington's EcoGrant program, this exhibition and catalog address the concept of recycling both physically and conceptually. Morgan's work litterally recycles and repurposes trash, but more importantly, it recycles memories, experiences and stories that would have otherwise been thrown away.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
by Phillip March Jones, Linda Blackford, Van Meter Pettit, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Robert Morgan began his art career as a scavenger collecting photos, personal mementos and everyday objects from the homes of young gay men who were the victims of AIDS, alcoholism and drug abuse. These objects, regardless of their original significance, were routinely abandoned or thrown away by families that had little use for the remainders their sons' lives. Blessed with a strong sense of curiosity and a perverse Midas touch, Morgan was able to turn those banal objects into works of art through a complex method of assemblage and adornment. Objects are wrapped, glued and nailed together - infused with religious and personal iconography - and then covered in a thick layer of polyurethane making them glisten and shine like glass. But all that glitters...
Is not gold. It is garbage, junk, trash, detritus, personal, anonymous and all but completely forgotten. It is bottle caps, construction netting, baby dolls and caution tape. But it glitters all the same. The show's title, All That Glitters... is an abbreviated misquote from Shakespeare's original line, "All that glisters is not gold." Morgan's work is the result of a lifelong accumulation of tangible "quotes" - objects taken from the piles of what is left after their original lives have ended. These objects of all shapes and sizes make their way to Morgan's studio and are reassigned meaning by the artist, assembled into the massive altar in the living room, piled in the bedroom or tacked onto a work in progress. Misquoting, re-purposing, re-inventing are the tools that drive Morgan's creative process.
The most recent incarnation of Morgan's accumulative process manifests itself in the form of small army. Saints, warriors and sentries - on foot and on horse - march through the gallery and into the street towards the eager eyes and faces pressed up against the gallery's front window. Created in conjunction with Lexington's EcoGrant program, this exhibition and catalog address the concept of recycling both physically and conceptually. Morgan's work litterally recycles and repurposes trash, but more importantly, it recycles memories, experiences and stories that would have otherwise been thrown away.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
BRUCE BURRIS: WE WILL SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY WE WILL
by Phillip March Jones, Bruce Burris
Director's Note:
We Will Someday, Someday We Will. It might be tomorrow, the day after or even next week, but we will. Someday We Will. Our lives are full of daily resolutions to improve ourselves and the way we live. The majority of these resolutions are put off indefinitely with the ever-comforting, "someday." But there is work to be done, and the indefinite future has to come about someday. As a curator, I knew that someday I would put together a show of work by Bruce Burris. Someday is here.
Burris' exhibition at Institute 193 is an amalgam of sculpture, drawing, painting and installation work all crammed into our 700 square foot gallery. In a way, it is the perfect space to explore Burris' vision which is constructed using colorful bursts of information, text and image. The pieces support one another as building blocks of the artist's larger vision. The subjects of mountaintop removal, community dynamics and protest are dynamic issues which are quick to evoke heated discussion, especially in the state of Kentucky. Burris handles these delicate issues with essential humor and whimsy, but is never dismissive of their power to divide.
This book and associated exhibition, represents a certain kind of expansive potential for Burris' work. Each of the works contained within these pages is designed to grow and expand. They are not the products of short-term vision but well-polished models intended for expanded installations and bodies of work. The Lonely Mountain Community Center has a never-ending energy that allows it to alter its scale, content and aesthetic at will. The cultural ephemera being created by the Stoner Creek Boys can continue to evolve into an infinite number of physical incantations further adding to their myth. The Mountain Top Removal Protestors can grow into a full-fledged army of opposition, fighting for their cause in large numbers. Their armed opposition will obviously augment their own forces in response. We Will Someday, Someday We Will is full of potential energy and challenges all of us to engage with our larger community and become a part of the ongoing debates that will shape our future. Someday is not as far off, as it seems.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
by Phillip March Jones, Bruce Burris
Director's Note:
We Will Someday, Someday We Will. It might be tomorrow, the day after or even next week, but we will. Someday We Will. Our lives are full of daily resolutions to improve ourselves and the way we live. The majority of these resolutions are put off indefinitely with the ever-comforting, "someday." But there is work to be done, and the indefinite future has to come about someday. As a curator, I knew that someday I would put together a show of work by Bruce Burris. Someday is here.
Burris' exhibition at Institute 193 is an amalgam of sculpture, drawing, painting and installation work all crammed into our 700 square foot gallery. In a way, it is the perfect space to explore Burris' vision which is constructed using colorful bursts of information, text and image. The pieces support one another as building blocks of the artist's larger vision. The subjects of mountaintop removal, community dynamics and protest are dynamic issues which are quick to evoke heated discussion, especially in the state of Kentucky. Burris handles these delicate issues with essential humor and whimsy, but is never dismissive of their power to divide.
This book and associated exhibition, represents a certain kind of expansive potential for Burris' work. Each of the works contained within these pages is designed to grow and expand. They are not the products of short-term vision but well-polished models intended for expanded installations and bodies of work. The Lonely Mountain Community Center has a never-ending energy that allows it to alter its scale, content and aesthetic at will. The cultural ephemera being created by the Stoner Creek Boys can continue to evolve into an infinite number of physical incantations further adding to their myth. The Mountain Top Removal Protestors can grow into a full-fledged army of opposition, fighting for their cause in large numbers. Their armed opposition will obviously augment their own forces in response. We Will Someday, Someday We Will is full of potential energy and challenges all of us to engage with our larger community and become a part of the ongoing debates that will shape our future. Someday is not as far off, as it seems.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
BULLETIN BOARD CAFE
by Phillip March Jones, Michele Thursz, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
The Bulletin Board Cafe at Institute 193 was intended to address the need for immediately-local visual exchange. For years, the city of Lexington hosted kiosks that were open and free for various groups and individuals to post announcements for concerts, art-openings, events, personal ads and fliers for services. Those kiosks, for unexplained reasons, have been permanently dismantled and the exchange of information has been forced into out-of-the-way locations - typically next to bathrooms in various restaurants and bars littered around town. The result is an incoherent local dialogue and the relegation of "posting" to facebook, twitter and other online entities that, by design, encompass much larger communities. The centralized "bulletin boards" have disappeared, leaving behind large swaths of the community that do not use digital social media.
The Bulletin Board Cafe's installation at Institute 193 was deliberately open to the entire community and was designed to create and encourage dialogue about any event, activity, interest, project, business, etc. It was not intended to serve any particular group but its incarnation as a temporary installation within the confines of a contemporary arts space created a perhaps inevitable dynamic. The board primarily served as a physical space for visual artists to come and post things they are working on and to receive feedback (critique and praise) about their most recent efforts. It demonstrates a need for physical exhibition space in the Downtown Lexington area – and perhaps more significantly – a need for critical dialogue amongst local working artists. There is a tremendous need for critical debate, writing and scholarship and this temporary public space visually attests to that need. The other unintended consequence was a flowering of creative energy from some "unusual suspects." Lawyers, doctors and restaurant owners contributed poems, journal entries, sketches and other creative products in addition to the standard fare of business cards, flyers and menus. This book is a snapshot of materials left at the bulletin board during its 6-week run at the Institute. At the end of the exhibition, items were removed and scanned in no particular order and are printed here.
The Bulletin Board Cafe installation and this resulting publication constitute a working proposal to the City of Lexington. Perhaps the city could create and facilitate the operation of a business that is at once a space for community exchange and a self-sustaining cafe? The requirements are simple. Bulletin board, tables, chairs. The cafe would ideally be centrally located and accessible to the greatest number of people, both in location and price. Coffee, tea and soda. Or the city could bring back the kiosks. Or both?
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
LOUIS ZOELLAR BICKETT II: SELECTIONS FROM THE ARCHIVE
by Phillip March Jones, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Since 1972, Louis Zoellar Bickett II has meticulously collected and cataloged items from his daily life and assembled them into a functioning installation he refers to as: THE ARCHIVE. Photographs, dinner receipts, dog brushes, jars, binders and items of every sort are tagged and neatly placed within the 3-D collage that serves as home and studio to the artist. The archive's contents are seemingly endless and infinitely varied.
Bickett's genius lies in his ability to transform the most basic object into a highly sophisticated work of art using a simple associative process. The collection, organization and archiving of everyday objects imbues them with significance beyond function or simple metaphor. Every object is tagged with a name and date, corresponding to a set of events, an idea or some larger on-going project. The object's viewer knows precisely what it is, where its from, why it was purchased, the name of its previous owner or the role that it plays in the artist's life. Its placement within the archive further secures its importance and guarantees its survival. Sculptures, photographs and paintings are tagged in the same manner (and with the same precision) as flashlights, bowling bags and hats. Certain objects are "tagged" or "stamped" several times to reflect their inclusion in several projects. The debate about "what is art" is clearly answered in Bickett's process: anything I choose.
Selections from the Archive is a quick glance at a seemingly random sampling of objects. It is not intended to be a retrospective or an accounting of various projects. Indeed there are too many for a book and exhibition of this size. The intention is rather to select objects that resonate with simplicity and illuminate the artist's transformative abilities while hinting at the larger themes of sex, identity and death that permeate Bickett's work. Furiously collecting and archiving towards death, Bickett has become the central object of the archive - missing only the tag he will receive, not unlike the rest of us, upon his own death. With this book, we invite the viewer into the artist's studio for a fleeting glance at Bickett's work and the machinations of his vast and ever-growing archive.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
by Phillip March Jones, Michele Thursz, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
The Bulletin Board Cafe at Institute 193 was intended to address the need for immediately-local visual exchange. For years, the city of Lexington hosted kiosks that were open and free for various groups and individuals to post announcements for concerts, art-openings, events, personal ads and fliers for services. Those kiosks, for unexplained reasons, have been permanently dismantled and the exchange of information has been forced into out-of-the-way locations - typically next to bathrooms in various restaurants and bars littered around town. The result is an incoherent local dialogue and the relegation of "posting" to facebook, twitter and other online entities that, by design, encompass much larger communities. The centralized "bulletin boards" have disappeared, leaving behind large swaths of the community that do not use digital social media.
The Bulletin Board Cafe's installation at Institute 193 was deliberately open to the entire community and was designed to create and encourage dialogue about any event, activity, interest, project, business, etc. It was not intended to serve any particular group but its incarnation as a temporary installation within the confines of a contemporary arts space created a perhaps inevitable dynamic. The board primarily served as a physical space for visual artists to come and post things they are working on and to receive feedback (critique and praise) about their most recent efforts. It demonstrates a need for physical exhibition space in the Downtown Lexington area – and perhaps more significantly – a need for critical dialogue amongst local working artists. There is a tremendous need for critical debate, writing and scholarship and this temporary public space visually attests to that need. The other unintended consequence was a flowering of creative energy from some "unusual suspects." Lawyers, doctors and restaurant owners contributed poems, journal entries, sketches and other creative products in addition to the standard fare of business cards, flyers and menus. This book is a snapshot of materials left at the bulletin board during its 6-week run at the Institute. At the end of the exhibition, items were removed and scanned in no particular order and are printed here.
The Bulletin Board Cafe installation and this resulting publication constitute a working proposal to the City of Lexington. Perhaps the city could create and facilitate the operation of a business that is at once a space for community exchange and a self-sustaining cafe? The requirements are simple. Bulletin board, tables, chairs. The cafe would ideally be centrally located and accessible to the greatest number of people, both in location and price. Coffee, tea and soda. Or the city could bring back the kiosks. Or both?
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
LOUIS ZOELLAR BICKETT II: SELECTIONS FROM THE ARCHIVE
by Phillip March Jones, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Since 1972, Louis Zoellar Bickett II has meticulously collected and cataloged items from his daily life and assembled them into a functioning installation he refers to as: THE ARCHIVE. Photographs, dinner receipts, dog brushes, jars, binders and items of every sort are tagged and neatly placed within the 3-D collage that serves as home and studio to the artist. The archive's contents are seemingly endless and infinitely varied.
Bickett's genius lies in his ability to transform the most basic object into a highly sophisticated work of art using a simple associative process. The collection, organization and archiving of everyday objects imbues them with significance beyond function or simple metaphor. Every object is tagged with a name and date, corresponding to a set of events, an idea or some larger on-going project. The object's viewer knows precisely what it is, where its from, why it was purchased, the name of its previous owner or the role that it plays in the artist's life. Its placement within the archive further secures its importance and guarantees its survival. Sculptures, photographs and paintings are tagged in the same manner (and with the same precision) as flashlights, bowling bags and hats. Certain objects are "tagged" or "stamped" several times to reflect their inclusion in several projects. The debate about "what is art" is clearly answered in Bickett's process: anything I choose.
Selections from the Archive is a quick glance at a seemingly random sampling of objects. It is not intended to be a retrospective or an accounting of various projects. Indeed there are too many for a book and exhibition of this size. The intention is rather to select objects that resonate with simplicity and illuminate the artist's transformative abilities while hinting at the larger themes of sex, identity and death that permeate Bickett's work. Furiously collecting and archiving towards death, Bickett has become the central object of the archive - missing only the tag he will receive, not unlike the rest of us, upon his own death. With this book, we invite the viewer into the artist's studio for a fleeting glance at Bickett's work and the machinations of his vast and ever-growing archive.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
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