Monsters
Ratio 3 , California, San Francisco, 05/16/2014 - 06/21/2014
ABOUT
Ratio 3 is pleased to present Monsters, an exhibition of sculptural and photographic works by Geof Oppenheimer. By showcasing the human body’s capacity to record thought and action, the works comprising Monsters suggest that the body can be read as a record of social values.
Installed in the main gallery, The Embarrassing Statue (2014) combines disparate materials to suggest a solitary figure. A brass-plated armature equipped with a leaf blower sits atop a marble pedestal, referencing both classical notions of figurative sculpture and modern conventions of display. The figure serves as a signifier for the embarrassment and degradation that can accompany the public performance of labor and its dehumanizing effect.
Oppenheimer’s new photographic project, Ends Have a Million Fathers, the blues (2014), is a suite of fifteen photographs of wounded skin. Depicting physical results of violence, the photographs function as a record of the failure of nonviolent means of political recourse. With this suite of images, Oppenheimer frames the body’s skin as a melancholic register of conflict.
Love and Other Abstractions (2011-2012) further investigates the body’s sensitivity to social pressures, particularly those put forth by governing institutions. Originally commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Love and Other Abstractions creates a theatrical relationship between a cast graphite bust and a suspended triangular neon sign. With each of its faces declaring societal obligations and responsibilities, the sign’s language suggests oppressive constraints, while the bust’s degraded form reflects the psychic toll of these constraints.
By positioning the human figure as a political form, Monsters is a return to the historical use of the body as a stand-in for larger social forces and as a repository of collective meaning.
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Ratio 3 is pleased to present Monsters, an exhibition of sculptural and photographic works by Geof Oppenheimer. By showcasing the human body’s capacity to record thought and action, the works comprising Monsters suggest that the body can be read as a record of social values.
Installed in the main gallery, The Embarrassing Statue (2014) combines disparate materials to suggest a solitary figure. A brass-plated armature equipped with a leaf blower sits atop a marble pedestal, referencing both classical notions of figurative sculpture and modern conventions of display. The figure serves as a signifier for the embarrassment and degradation that can accompany the public performance of labor and its dehumanizing effect.
Oppenheimer’s new photographic project, Ends Have a Million Fathers, the blues (2014), is a suite of fifteen photographs of wounded skin. Depicting physical results of violence, the photographs function as a record of the failure of nonviolent means of political recourse. With this suite of images, Oppenheimer frames the body’s skin as a melancholic register of conflict.
Love and Other Abstractions (2011-2012) further investigates the body’s sensitivity to social pressures, particularly those put forth by governing institutions. Originally commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Love and Other Abstractions creates a theatrical relationship between a cast graphite bust and a suspended triangular neon sign. With each of its faces declaring societal obligations and responsibilities, the sign’s language suggests oppressive constraints, while the bust’s degraded form reflects the psychic toll of these constraints.
By positioning the human figure as a political form, Monsters is a return to the historical use of the body as a stand-in for larger social forces and as a repository of collective meaning.
For More Information