Christian Holstad
23 Mar - 22 Apr 2011
CHRISTIAN HOLSTAD
You Will Find Me If You Want Me In The Garden Unless It's Pouring Down With Rain
23 March - 22 April 2011
On the 23rd March Massimo De Carlo opens Christian Holstad’s solo show You Will Find Me if You Want Me in the Garden unless It’s Pouring Down With Rain. The title of the exhibition comes from a verse of “The Garden”, 1996 song by the German band Einstürzende Neubauten, one of the most significant and important industrial rock groups of the ‘80’s.
Different elements, retrieved from music, fashion and daily life are blended together in Christian Holstad’s sculptures, drawings, collages and videos, through a process of revisitation and manipulation; the artist is directly involved in the assembly of materials, the collaging of images and the sewing of fabrics.
The three collages on wood entitled Religion, Sex, Beauty open the show, introducing the spectator to the artist’s reflection on the contemporary world and, in particular, on the consequences of consumerism. The suspended characters are captured while they move and consume, in the attempt to satisfy their desire to reach God, indulge their senses and become prettier, but as they move they remain inexorably trapped in modern pillories.
The sea theme, already treated in the first three works, dominates the second section of the room, shifting the visitor’s attention from the human to the animal world. The new series of sculptures and the video reflect on the presence of “medusa” in the sea as a symbol of consumerism strictly tied to environmental pollution. Seemingly mythological animals with sensual tentacles that reach the ground are created with different materials assembled directly by the artist. Their body is actually a shopping cart ready to receive, or better, consume any kind of product that the animal/human being encounters along its path. In the video Medusa the artist uses his camera phone to film the movement of his sculptures, manoeuvred by him and his friends. The soundtrack, composed by different radio clips played in sequence, creates a connection between the human and animal world. The artist purposely decided not to intervene or edit the video in order to emphasize the visionary and realistic quality of the work.
Christian Holstad was born in 1972 in Anaheim, California. He lives and works in New York. Amongst his most recent solo shows are I Confess at Galleria Civica di Modena (2009), Christian Holstad: The Terms of Endearment Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2006), Gaity: Discovering the Lost Art (in Absentia) Zurich Kunsthalle (2004). He participated in important international events such as the Yokoama Triennial (2008), Lyon Biennial (2007), Moscow Biennial (2007) and the Whitney Biennial (2004). His works are included in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Modern Kunst, Oslo and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles.
You Will Find Me If You Want Me In The Garden Unless It's Pouring Down With Rain
23 March - 22 April 2011
On the 23rd March Massimo De Carlo opens Christian Holstad’s solo show You Will Find Me if You Want Me in the Garden unless It’s Pouring Down With Rain. The title of the exhibition comes from a verse of “The Garden”, 1996 song by the German band Einstürzende Neubauten, one of the most significant and important industrial rock groups of the ‘80’s.
Different elements, retrieved from music, fashion and daily life are blended together in Christian Holstad’s sculptures, drawings, collages and videos, through a process of revisitation and manipulation; the artist is directly involved in the assembly of materials, the collaging of images and the sewing of fabrics.
The three collages on wood entitled Religion, Sex, Beauty open the show, introducing the spectator to the artist’s reflection on the contemporary world and, in particular, on the consequences of consumerism. The suspended characters are captured while they move and consume, in the attempt to satisfy their desire to reach God, indulge their senses and become prettier, but as they move they remain inexorably trapped in modern pillories.
The sea theme, already treated in the first three works, dominates the second section of the room, shifting the visitor’s attention from the human to the animal world. The new series of sculptures and the video reflect on the presence of “medusa” in the sea as a symbol of consumerism strictly tied to environmental pollution. Seemingly mythological animals with sensual tentacles that reach the ground are created with different materials assembled directly by the artist. Their body is actually a shopping cart ready to receive, or better, consume any kind of product that the animal/human being encounters along its path. In the video Medusa the artist uses his camera phone to film the movement of his sculptures, manoeuvred by him and his friends. The soundtrack, composed by different radio clips played in sequence, creates a connection between the human and animal world. The artist purposely decided not to intervene or edit the video in order to emphasize the visionary and realistic quality of the work.
Christian Holstad was born in 1972 in Anaheim, California. He lives and works in New York. Amongst his most recent solo shows are I Confess at Galleria Civica di Modena (2009), Christian Holstad: The Terms of Endearment Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2006), Gaity: Discovering the Lost Art (in Absentia) Zurich Kunsthalle (2004). He participated in important international events such as the Yokoama Triennial (2008), Lyon Biennial (2007), Moscow Biennial (2007) and the Whitney Biennial (2004). His works are included in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Modern Kunst, Oslo and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles.