Eric Wesley
30 Nov 2007 - 05 Jan 2008
ERIC WESLEY
Bortolami is pleased to present new work by Eric Wesley. For the exhibition, Wesley has created the Spa-ference Room, the latest installment of an ongoing project called Spa-fice. Half spa, half office this environment creates a mood of simultaneous relaxation and productivity. Originally designed as a functioning apparatus for a relationship between work and rest, otium and negotium, this social machine exists only at the aesthetic crossroads of sculpture and invention.
Spa-ference Room takes a celestial form as one encounters an absurdly gigantic bathrobe suspended in the atmosphere of the gallery (or draped over the more stable components as an architectural gesture). This is one of a few objects recreated seven times the size. With the original intent to produce an edition number of seven of each, the instinctual stab at numerology forces the issues of the beyond, or perhaps a childish taunting reference to art consumption. Further to this idea, Wesley talks about a theory of physical growth beyond our human conception, “if the body kept growing past the late teens we would be approximately seven times the size by the time of natural death.” Indeed, maybe our minds force a psychological constraint regarding such possible physical realities. Another object in this system is a condom, either inflated beyond recognition or flaccid in defeat. In either form, this object begins to bring us back down to earth.
The basis of the Spa-fice aesthetic revolves around both the pure and the perverted notions of minimalism and the pursuit of an absolute sculptural form. Desks, jacuzzis, seats, floors and walls all constructed of a functional, albeit beautiful pedigree of classic formalism. The lost art form of ‘literalism’ comes to mind as the components of the exhibition clash. Architecture is present, as is the supernatural. Humor, sex, everyday life and death are there, but ultimately, the intent to communicate that there is something bigger at work prevails, as the physical wanes like our tiny one-seventh size bodies. Eric Wesley was born in 1973 in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works. In 2006 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include Gold Standards at P.S. 1, Alien Nation at the ICA, London and Freestyle at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. This year the artist was included in the Prague Biennial and in a solo exhibition at the Foundation Morra Grecco in Naples.
Bortolami is pleased to present new work by Eric Wesley. For the exhibition, Wesley has created the Spa-ference Room, the latest installment of an ongoing project called Spa-fice. Half spa, half office this environment creates a mood of simultaneous relaxation and productivity. Originally designed as a functioning apparatus for a relationship between work and rest, otium and negotium, this social machine exists only at the aesthetic crossroads of sculpture and invention.
Spa-ference Room takes a celestial form as one encounters an absurdly gigantic bathrobe suspended in the atmosphere of the gallery (or draped over the more stable components as an architectural gesture). This is one of a few objects recreated seven times the size. With the original intent to produce an edition number of seven of each, the instinctual stab at numerology forces the issues of the beyond, or perhaps a childish taunting reference to art consumption. Further to this idea, Wesley talks about a theory of physical growth beyond our human conception, “if the body kept growing past the late teens we would be approximately seven times the size by the time of natural death.” Indeed, maybe our minds force a psychological constraint regarding such possible physical realities. Another object in this system is a condom, either inflated beyond recognition or flaccid in defeat. In either form, this object begins to bring us back down to earth.
The basis of the Spa-fice aesthetic revolves around both the pure and the perverted notions of minimalism and the pursuit of an absolute sculptural form. Desks, jacuzzis, seats, floors and walls all constructed of a functional, albeit beautiful pedigree of classic formalism. The lost art form of ‘literalism’ comes to mind as the components of the exhibition clash. Architecture is present, as is the supernatural. Humor, sex, everyday life and death are there, but ultimately, the intent to communicate that there is something bigger at work prevails, as the physical wanes like our tiny one-seventh size bodies. Eric Wesley was born in 1973 in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works. In 2006 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Group exhibitions include Gold Standards at P.S. 1, Alien Nation at the ICA, London and Freestyle at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. This year the artist was included in the Prague Biennial and in a solo exhibition at the Foundation Morra Grecco in Naples.