Mature Themes

Cindy Ji Hye Kim
Kiki Kogelnik
Brian Kokoska
Bjarne Melgaard
Chelsey Pettyjohn
Erika Vogt
Julia Wachtel

Curated by John Garcia

14 January 2018 - 11 March 2018
Julia Wachtel, Tree, 2016, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2 panels, overall: 36 x 93 in.
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Erika Vogt, Judith DreamWeapon, 2017, polyurethane, acrylic on linen, and rope (foreground)
Cindy Ji Hye Kim, Sore Throat, 2018, oil, graphite, acrylic, ink and charcoal on canvas (left)
Chelsey Pettyjohn, Flesh Dog, 2016, ceramic, 9 1/2 x 3 x 4 in.
Kiki Kogelnik, Untitled Hanging, c. 1970, sheet vinyl and chrome steel hanger, 62 15/16 x 19 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. Courtesy Kiki Kogelnik Foundation, © 1970 Kiki Kogelnik Foundation. All rights reserved.
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Brian Kokoska, Untitled (Sorry To See You Go), 2015, blanket, fiberglass, Samsung phone, Uncle Jim's teeth, leather, vintage oranament, spray paint, fiberglass snake, dimensions variable
Bjarne Melgaard, Theresa realizing her life was not fulfilled in any way, 2013, oil on canvas, 47 x 40 in.
Brian Kokoska, Love Triangle (Goofy Cage Slave), 2018, wooden furniture, fiberglass, vintage stuffed animals, metal cage, spray paint, latex, dimensions variable
Julia Wachtel, Between Red and Green, 2017, oil on canvas, 2 panels, overall: 36 x 48 in.
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Brian Kokoska, Lonesome Cowboy (Dead Elvis), 2016, ceramic, rubber mask, acrylic, plastic, metal table, lock, double bit axe, cable tie, dimensions variable
Chelsey Pettyjohn, Ring Around, 2016, Ceramic, 5 x 5 x 7 1/2 in.
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Chelsey Pettyjohn, Leisure Time, 2016, ceramic, 4 1/2 x 4 x 13 in.
Mature Themes, 2018, installation view, Foxy Production, New York
Bjarne Melgaard, Theresa reminding herself it's nothing left of her own person, 2013, oil on canvas, 47 x 40 in.

Cindy Ji Hye Kim
Kiki Kogelnik
Brian Kokoska
Bjarne Melgaard
Chelsey Pettyjohn
Erika Vogt
Julia Wachtel

Curated by John Garcia

A scene from a movie:

Beatrix is sprawled on the bathroom floor, crying. Her tears are those of exhaustion, of joy, and of trauma.

“She covers her mouth so B.B. won’t hear her crying and get worried or confused.”

A long wall separates her from her child. On one side lays Beatrix, consumed by an overflowing catharsis; on the other sits her daughter, B.B., blissfully watching the 1946 cartoon, The Talking Magpies. Beatrix hopes for this wall to be a barrier, holding back the crashing weight of consequence and emotion from her idle, and seemingly unaffected, child.

“She washes her face in the sink, when she’s presentable, she walks out of the bathroom, jumps on the bed with her baby, hugs her from behind as the two watch Saturday morning cartoons.”

For the moment, it appears that the mother has shielded her daughter from the abyss. Yet for all the care taken by Beatrix to muffle her own cries, she has only made more audible the jangle of the cartoon and its slapstick dialogue. What will happen when, months later, she jumps into bed again to watch the weekend cartoons with B.B. and a rerun of The Talking Magpies plays? Will the opening melody take Beatrix back to her moment of collapse on the bathroom tiles? And what about B.B.? Will she remember her mother’s stifled weeps through the barricade?

As they cuddle side-by-side watching that same lively cartoon play out, will they see it through new eyes? The animated violence now more real than caricature; the conversation suddenly more biting than playful. What has become of this sweet, innocuous cartoon to have made it so cruel and wrong?

  • All quotes taken from original screenplay.

    CREDITS
    Installation photography: Mark Woods.