Every Which Way But Loose

Curated by Lori Zimmer

Art Market Hamptons 

Bridgehampton Historical Society
July 11-14, 2013
Opening reception Thursday, July 11, 7-10 p.m.

Quattlebaum Foretich Gallery is pleased to announce Every Which Way But Loose, curated by Lori Zimmer, an outdoor sculpture garden at artMRKT Hamptons from July 11-14, 2013. Presenting the work of Coby Kennedy, Nyugen Smith and Trong Gia Nguyen, this sculptural collection is based loosely on our uncertain past and present and looming future, and the necessary survival and humor to direct and cope with all that’s ahead. Each artist selected deals with consumption, surveillance, fame, and violence through commercialization and redemption.

The works included in Every Which Way But Loose hold a tongue-in-cheek survivalist approach, with a forward- moving attitude of making due and moving on, in a creative and interactive manner. Each piece invites visitors to interact and engage, and to transport themselves for a moment into a reality where guns are sold like Ice Pops, homes are cobbled together like life-sized collages from scavenged objects, and your 15 minutes of fame may very well be while you are in a compromising position.

Every Which Way But Loose pokes at the constraints of the human condition, with large-scale sculptures, through the eyes of Kennedy, Smith and Nguyen.

Coby Kennedy's Supply And Demand vending machines are a satirical play on modern consumerism. One (red) peddles popular cliches such as Newports, boxcutters and Phillies blunts illustrating how even a bad-boy lifestyle can be marketed and sold. The other machine (green) takes on our country's red-button issue with gun control. Both machines are intended to be blatant and sensational, abrasively highlighting the often exploitative relationship between producer and consumer.

Trong Gia Nguyen's Guy Debord (guillotine) is a wooden shed/outhouse whose door has a hole cut out where the visitor may insert his head. Peeking inside reveals projected video clips of Andy Warhol's "screen tests." The countenances of Warhol's pals are spliced and re-embodied with disparate "bathroom tests" depicting individuals, from the shoulders down, sitting on the commode. Looking straight down, a tilted mirror inside a large basket reflects a more dire and morbid predicament. The basket, it seems, is there to catch the viewer's head as he finds himself placed under the blade of a guillotine.

Nyugen Smith’s Bundle Houses are conglomerations of found objects that address survival, tragedy and crises. The make-shift shelter-sculptures evoke at once dystopian futures, present day refugees, and recent hurricane victims, seamlessly meshing these messages into impeccable and relevant sculpture. In this iteration, Smith will be a site-specific Bundle House “ConfeSHUNal.” Inside of the Bundle House structure, Smith will act as The Redeemer. Visitors will be asked to check off a list if Seven Deadly Sins, with the option to have The Redeemer take lashes for their atonement. The checklist is then slipped to Smith inside the ConfeSHUNal, and exchanged for a mixed-media drawing that Smith will create based on the sins checked within 3 minutes. If the visitor chose for The Redeemer to atone for their sins, Smith will then lash himself the requested number of times, using a whip made of leather strips bundled together. An illuminated manuscript charting the results of each ConfeSHUNal is created for all sinners to see.