AGAIN AGAIN

CLARK MCLEAN GRAHAM & ROSS NORMANDIN

AGAIN AGAIN

CURATED

BY &

COREY OBERLANDER LINDSEY STAPLETON

AGAIN AGAIN CLARK MCLEAN GRAHAM & ROSS NORMANDIN Again Again is the first installment of a two-part exhibition focused on subtle, persistent revolt. Through the implementation of pale, muted, and pastel colors the artists reference the mundane aesthetic commonly associated with necktie collections, tupperware parties, office climate or holiday decorations. These interdisciplinary works feel familiar and reveal an underhanded, yet delightful rebellion upon continued investigation. By splitting the exhibition into two parts, curators Corey Oberlander and Lindsey Stapleton are able to explore two separate manifestations: the mental and the physical rejection of domestic urbanity.

A two-person exhibition with Ross Normandin and Clark Mclean Graham, Again Again focuses on the mental and subconscious day-to-day dissatisfaction. Moving through personal achievement, memory and experience, the work will be hung tightly together, forcing the viewer to experiences the full collections oF work at once, or not at all. Pleasing but uncomfortable, the works here will not allow the viewer to feel complacent, and instead illicit surprising emotions despite muted pastel colors and soft installation techniques.

High and low chroma; side-by-side and vis-Ă -vis, the installation of Again Again will focus on a repetition, subtle deviation and persistent effort. In dialogue independently and cohesively, both artists reject the fully mundane - choosing instead to highlight and examine tiny moments of common experience, failure and triumph.

Rolling in The Mud 2015

Cutting The Old Mud Rug 2015

CLARK

MCLEAN

GRAHAM

Clark Mclean Graham works primarily as a collagist, fabricating physical and digital montages in an attempt to create modern day relics with nods to American pop culture and consumerism. His current body of work draws heavily from Freud’s idea of “repetiition compulsion�.

Revisiting imagery he was involuntarily subjected to as a child, Graham creates time based minimalist video collages utilizing mundane, easily forgettable moments to create a subjective, and subversive world that feels familiar and safe. On the surface these pieces serve as time based wall decor or video vignettes that are suited to the average attention span of the MTV generation. clarkmcleangraham.com GRIN- How does repetition exist in your work?

CLARK MCLEAN GRAHAM- Repetitive Neurosis. In my work, repetition exists as repeated actions that in context of their normal timeline are rather brief but by looping these minuscule moments they become something more in tune with the psychological phenomenon of repetition compulsion. In my eyes the repetition also serves as a time-based brush stroke, or an instrument of conveyance.

Your color palette is somewhere between Easter and industrial waste. Could you tell us how you arrived at this palette and how it ties into the greater concept of your work?

My color palette is heavily influenced by the color schemes of the interior shots of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The soft pastels and strikingly bold oranges and yellows counterbalance the often, colorless scenes that I appropriate. Aside from the work of Charles M. Schulz my color palette is directly informed by the

colors of holidays, most specifically EASTER! Growing up the grandson of a southern Baptist minister I have both horrid and fond memories of said holiday.

Easter like most holidays is in itself all about repetition.

The color pink for me, aside from its ties to Easter, is important in its sense of "femininity". I know it may not be PC to assign gender to a color, but I do. I am not ashamed to admit that in the days of my angsty youth I used quite a great deal of highly pornographic material in my work. The female form is a beautiful work of art in itself and I exploited it on the 2d plane. In my current artistic practice the color pink is a stand-in for that imagery that I so blatantly over used.

Your work employs some heavy image appropriation. Where and how do you find these images?

Is there a personal association with this imagery?

My image appropriation comes in part from my own personal film library. When I watch movies I

The Smooch 2015

take notes. I watch and collect films and videos the way most traditional collage artists look through time printed periodicals or old dusty books. The media that was appropriated for this body of work all comes from movies that I was exposed to as a child.

From an early age I was presented with movies as gifts.

Many of the clips appropriated I re-photographed from the old vhs tapes and 16mm reels that I pulled out of my parents basement.

Describe the process of switching between 'film/video' and 'printmaking'?

My fascination with printmaking comes from the desire for the tangible. I love working with time-based material but until technology comes a little farther along it is hard to create a time

based work that exists without electricity (not counting kinetic sculpture.) Until it does I will always divert back to practices that allow me to create work of a tactile nature.

Digital media has come a long way but it still has a stigma and, a sour aura about it. When people here "video artist" or "digital media" they seem to get a look in their eyes like you exposed yourself to their family pet. At the end of the day art is art, it is something rich people hang on their walls but in the eyes of some artists it is a therapeutic act.

A wise woman woman once said to me "people who make silly looking things shouldn't take themselves too seriously." I will be the first to admit that I make a lot of silly work, but I make it very seriously.

Cabin Fever 2015

Turn and Shoot 2015

July Silicone, acrylic glass 25" x 17.5" 2015

July Silicone, acrylic glass 25" x 17.5" 2015

ROSS

NORMANDIN

The July Paintings were made throughout the month of October. They are exact in length, width and depth with varying appendages. They consume the hue of the wall that supports them. A roll cage sits opposite from the July paintings. Cage is a series of metal bars designed to be installed in a vehicle as a safety mechanism; often times for auto racing. This is a background.

Internal and external; purging, laughing, praying; this pairing of new works is one of relationships. As much in opposition as they are in concert, the inherent material qualities lead towards states of levity and weight. Silicone knots embedded in translucent glass and a vacant welded skeleton share unspoken narratives. Free of skin and shell.

July repeats. Cage is inert.

One foreground, short holidays, and the dog chases it's tail. It's built to win and built to crash. rossnormandin.com

GRIN- How does repetition exist in your work?

ROSS NORMANDIN- Maybe a navel, asshole, or armpit is funny the first time, but a third or fourth? Then does it become funny again at the sixth or seventh?

With these new works there’s not only the repetition of a similar image, but also the physical repetition of a puncture; pressure created and the unclarity and denial of vision within each object. I am not interested in resolution through repetition. I aim for a space of contemplation where the paintings function as one - where your laugh exists in the same space as disgust.

There’s a purity in the quality of materials, but it’s interesting to confuse, disorient, and challenge that purity through multiple variations and time.

Your color palette is somewhere between Easter and industrial waste. Could you tell us how you arrived at this palette and how it ties into the greater concept of your work?

Color is a very active part of my work. I try to keep it simple.

I’ve been using pastels and an unsaturated palette for many years now. Hospitals, in particular, are of interest to me.

Having been a visitor to hospitals nearly my entire life has made me gravitate to the calming, yet uncomfortable colors of a waiting room or a patient’s “johnny.”

Have you seen what nurse’s wear nowadays? Those incredibly obnoxious patterned shirts I just love them. I utilize the material’s natural color whenever I can. Stainless steel - more

often than not, I use polished steel which has certain connotations of sterility.

A feeling that the surface is so clean it kills. Subtle shifts and careful consideration of color pairings are always happening.

Lavender / chrome; sundown / flesh tone; piss pool / sky blue - it can activate the work very differently depending on the pairing.

Do you consider your works to exist somewhere in the domestic dialogue?

I think there are instances where my work can certainly be seen that way. Particularly when I introduce specific materials like a frame of a vehicle, swimming pool vinyl, sofa upholstery, or birthday balloons. I intend to leave a trace - my own personal history isn’t relevant. There are places and objects that are more charged than others for me.

Those that were inhabited by a body - masks and tubs to name a couple.

Your work employs some heavy use of artificial material. Where and how do you find these materials? Is there a personal association with these materials?

I only use silicone, plexiglass, and steel in this show. There’s a variety of materials in my studio at any given time. Many of which are found and then intervened with, but most are materials I’ve chosen deliberately to work with. The found material is much more specific and I usually seek those out. Marble trophy bases are the only natural material I work with — everything

else is in the synthetic or processed realm.

There are personal associations with many, but I’m not one to be heavy handed.

Describe the process of switching between 'sculpture' and 'painting'.

There is a system in place for the two-dimensional work.

The last few shows I’ve had I exhibited a series of almost identical paintings with one sculpture. The sculptures exist alone, however, they’re integral to the exhibit.

The 2d works are individual, but I see them as functioning as one within a given space. With these works in Again Again, the processes were not so different.

Sanding the plexiglass to create a fog and grinding and polishing steel to make a near mirror finish would seem like opposites, which visually they are, but the process is very similar. There is a bit more sweat involved in one than the other, but my actions are very similar. I am interested in how to make those connections on a formal level with two distinct forms in one space. The floor sculpture is a way to turn the knife while it’s in; to open it up.

Functionality is more at the core with the floor works wall works involve more of the senses and tend to call attention to the frontality, but who says it doesn’t has it’s back to you? I don’t think I deliberately switch from one to the other or even think whether they’re painting or sculpture, but I think in terms of the spatial relationships with the wall, floor, and viewer. Everything I’ve made in last few years is a body, whether on a wall or on the floor.

July Silicone, acrylic glass 25" x 17.5" 2015

July Silicone, acrylic glass 25" x 17.5" 2015

Cage Steel 40" x 60" x 45" 2015

GRIN GRIN is a contemporary art gallery located at The Plant in the historic Olneyville District of Providence, Rhode Island. Directed by Corey Oberlander and Lindsey Stapleton, GRIN was founded in 2013 as a space for artists to develop and exhibit their work with a steady curatorial hand.

Our intent is to develop an intellectually demanding yet aesthetically pleasing program, focusing on emerging artists working across mediums. Our hope is to stimulate fresh dialogue while continuing to promote the development of the local creative community. Our mission is to support the careers of underexposed artists with a devotion to craft and conceptual advancement. grinprovidence.com

CONTACT 60 Valley Street, Unit 3, Providence, Rhode Island 02909 e. contact@grinprovidence.com p. 401 272 0796 Open Saturdays 12PM - 5PM by announcement, appointment chance.

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