Love Explosion at Fleisher/ Ollman Gallery

Screen, 2008, by Alex Da Corte

Love Explosion
Jack Sloss/ Alex Da Corte
Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. Philadelphia
April 18th-May 17th 2008 !!!!THIS IS THE LAST DAY!!!!

When I say or think the words "love explosion" I think of a penis dripping with cum. Then I think of hippies, weed, and the sixties in general. Then I think of Ray-Ban Sunglasses. Fleisher/ Ollman has produced an odd little show ripe with so many different layers of mystery, meaning, and intrigue that it was a little hard for me to make head or tail of it. (It has to be noted that Love Explosion (Cranial Sections with Gunshot Wounds) is also the title of a piece in the exhibition, produced by Jack Sloss.)

I even read the catalog, which is a forty-page zine compiled by William Pym, and it only brought to mind more questions; the most glaring being the odd pairing of artist Jack Sloss with Alex Da Corte. It becomes hard for me to focus, here, on the artist's work, when I am more worried about why I am viewing two wholly different oeuvres brought together. One can't help but wonder what the curator was thinking, as it seems like the medium (which is the message) of each artist's work negates the other's.

There is no cute little summary to describe Love Explosion. For one thing, I feel like I know the work of Alex Da Corte much better then I know the work of Jack Sloss. It is easier for me to analyze the work of Alex Da Corte because I can see his entire piece at once, while many of Mr. Sloss' artworks are time-based (video/film/other forms of motion picture), so I wasn't able to view them in their entirety. I get the feeling that Mr. Sloss wants to show me a divine and melancholic beauty that has it's eyes and ears on all the troubles of the planet; a world slashed with sublime flashes of sunshine over the shadows of dusty carpets in dark rooms. He has an eye towards decisive moments. . . I think that I begin to like him. There was a moment, when I was watching a montage of videos (?--didn't see a plot and it seemed like random videos all taken by the same person) shown on a TV placed upon the floor with two headphones to pick up and a rug to sit on, I and I Improv Impart IV, that I had a really safe feeling come over me, like I was a child again. I watched some show falling on the video-camera and I felt like I could stay there all day. (In reality I probably spent less then five minutes with the piece.)


I and I Improv Impart IV, 2006-2007, by Jack Sloss

Mr. Sloss' work is steeped in a dark palette; the color of Olde English, bronze, wood, ornate rugs, and images of muslims while Mr. Da Corte's pieces utilize glitter and run the gambit of the spectrum one would hope to find at a child's birthday party. It seems as though Alex's work turns a rose-colored lens to a world it knows is really ugly while the world in Jack's work is perfect, only marred by the violence within it. They are both wonderful artists.

But what is this thing called Love?


After Party, 2008, by Alex Da Corte

No you didn't!: Fleisher/Ollman makes a bad call.

Before Love Explosion at Fleisher/Ollman there was "Help Yourself to Roses" at Space1026.

But yes they did!!!!!!!!! I found this passage on Fleisher/Ollman's press release about Alex Da Corte's exhibition, Love Explosion, opening there tonight (6-8):

"Love Explosion is Alex Da Corte's first full-scale show in Philadelphia following recent solo exhibitions at Parisian Laundry in Montreal and the Stonefox Artspace in New York. He graduated from the University of the Arts in 2005. Jack Sloss first showed at Fleisher/Ollman in 2005's Meatball invitational and From Time To Time in 2006, following his relocation to Philadelphia from Chicago in 2005, where he had shown at the Chicago Cultural Center and Donald Young Gallery among many others."

Excuse me? What was his show at Space 1026 if not full-scale?

And before that he had a "full-scale" show at Black Floor!


For Alex's December 2005 exhibition at Black Floor Gallery he covered the entire wall with prints to make a wall-paper, had an army of ceramic figures (made with help from Nick Lenker), several paintings, and this horse. Black Floor was larger then the space Alex will fill at Fleisher/Ollman. . .

Plus! Both of those were solo exhibitions! Love Explosion is a two person show with Jack Sloss. I understand that this show at F/O will undoubtedly get Alex more attention then either of his earlier full-scale solo exhibitions. . .but you don't have to lie about it.

ALEX DA CORTE, FOREVER AND EVER. Part 2

This is Part two. Part one is here.

If you prefer to listen, download the podcast at oneculture.mypodcast.com.

IN WHICH THE INTERVIEWER GETS BENT OUT OF SHAPE OVER THE WHY OF A PRETTY PICTURE

Annette: All your stuff is hand-made by yourself?

Alex: Yeah.

Annette: Would you ever change that?

Alex: No. I think, well, some people say that someday I'll get an assistant to make the work for me. . . but the time spent with the work is important to me.

Annette: Today it could go beyond that, you could get the work made in another country. Artists do that. They outsource.


Alex and friends install an exhibition at Black Floor Gallery.

Alex: I really enjoy the materials and the process of doing something. Even though it takes super-long and it's super obsessive, it affords me time to think about why I'm making the work. It's. . . I think a lot when I'm doing these things so it's almost spiritual. It could be compared to doing something like saying the rosary.

It's a repetitive process where you can just sit and think and I think it's important because it can inform the work. Sometimes it changes the work.

I also don't think that if I sent it away for someone else to make that it would ever satisfy me.

Annette: And I just want to say right here (because I've kind of been giving you a hard time) that your work does look beautiful and you're obviously talented.

Alex: Thank you. I wondered that the other day though, when you finish a work and it's picture perfect, it's hard when you make this beautiful object but the only thing people say to you is that it's beautiful.

Annette: It's hard to get past that though, and that's what I think I'm trying to get at right here is that there is something else to your work, but it's so hard to get to.

Alex: Yeah. I mean. . .

I like to think the things that we look at that are beautiful are actually much more complicated, whether it's a beautiful person , or. . . just a pretty package, that they're actually really fucked up inside.

Annette: Yes, but that's almost a cliche, in a way, if you see a beautiful person they're going to be fucked up inside.

Alex: But I believe that to be very true, about everybody and thing.


Accessory

IT ALL ENDS IN A FLASH.

Annette: Yes, and I admit that can be a pretty intense thing. I think of that "Accessory" piece you recently had at Fleisher/Ollman, and what I think was a really interesting component of the piece was that it was so much fun to take pictures of. I don't know if you thought about that while you were making it?

Alex: I did kind of.

We can talk about that piece because it's so recent, so fresh in my mind. Originally, I was thinking of calling it "Protect me from what I want" or something like that, and I was thinking about how it's odd to make an object to put it inside a vi-trine. You automatically put a value on it by telling people they can't touch it and I was thinking about malls and jewelry display cases. To put mirrors all around it so people can see themselves coveting something they can't have. . .

It makes a twisted sort of circle. It was fascinating to see all these people taking pictures of this very photogenic snake as you just said.

Annette: Well the pictures turned out great. Especially when you used the flash.

End. Listen to it all at: oneculture.mypodcast.com

ALEX DA CORTE, FOREVER AND EVER.

Alex DaCorte

Alex Da Corte has an exhibition opening, Love Explosion, on Friday (with Jack Sloss) at Fleisher/Ollman Gallery. It's not the sort of thing you should miss out on. The text below is the transcripted version of a talk with Alex DaCorte over the hum of traffic outside The Last Drop. If you would like to actually hear that hum, please visit: oneculture.mypodcast.com and download the podcast.

For a quick primer on Alex visit his work on the web, or read this review I wrote not long ago.

IN WHICH THE INTERVIEWER CALLS THE INTERVIEWEE A HUSTLER AND THEY BOTH LAUGH

Annette: I don't want you to be insulted by my first question but we've talked about it before and I think you can handle it.

Alex: Okay.

Annette: I wanted to talk about how people perceive you as a person who plays the "art game" really well, for lack of a better term, a hustler.

Alex: That's alright I think I've used that term myself. It doesn't insult me.

Annette: So I guess, how do you perceive the way you are going about selling yourself?

Alex: Um.

Annette: I know. That's a tough one. Do you even think that you're doing that?

Alex: I think there's a certain amount of "right place, right time" that is just in life, but you do sometimes have to create those "right places, right times" for yourself by pre-pla--not pre-planning, but by putting yourself out there.

Annette: Do you think that's an important part of being an artist today?

Alex: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

. . . But if you're talking about meeting someone who is interested in you, or is part of an arts world or an arts group?. . . I never was part of any kind of collective in the city. I was around, at most, at first fridays or something. I'm not afraid to ask people for something that I want. For instance, I asked Virgil if he needed an assistant, because when you need work that's what you do, you ask someone. Did I know that Virgil made work in the city? Yeah. I knew he worked at The Fabric Workshop and all of that stuff, but I was really naive about things like Chelsea, so I wasn't being opportunistic. I knew he was an art guy who could teach me things.

Even when I met you, I knew you had a gallery so I wanted to show you my work but I don't know if that's. . . I know that's part of making art but you still need to be in your studio working and things like that.

It flip flops. Then they'll be months and months where no one sees me, because I'm in my studio and I'm working on stuff.

Annette: Yeah.

Alex: I don't know If I'm answering your question.


Just give me a fucking chance

DO YOU HAVE TO SELL YOURSELF OR SELL YOUR ART?

Annette: I think you did answer my question. I guess I wanted to talk a little bit more about how much do you think a person has to sell themselves and actually make art? How much is that a part of being an artist?

Alex: I know a lot of really great artists who are painfully shy and they really don't show their work and I think that stops them from making more work because they don't get it out there.

I really don't know why my work is out there in the way that it is out there. I guess it all starts to snowball after awhile. You make a name for yourself from show to show, so I don't think it has to be that aggressive. I don't think it has to be despicable. I like people so I talk to people.

It is a necessary part. Art is a business, so you have to have a certain amount of. . . business savvy.

Annette: Do you consider yourself a career artist?

Alex: Yeah. I want to do this for the rest of my life. I'm not good enough at anything else.

Annette: This is what you want to do. 24/7 all the time?

Alex: Yeah, for the rest of my life.


Luren Jenison of Copy Gallery wacks Alex's "This is This" at the Institute for Contemporary Art

IN WHICH ALEX (INTERVIEWEE) PROFESSES HIS LOVE FOR DISNEY

Annette: Your work also has a surface of being really beautiful and it sells itself really well. It's very pretty, and I think there is a darker underbelly.

I see you embracing a very decadent side of art that's been embraced by Damien Hirst, or Matthew Barney. . .

Why does that appeal to you?

Alex: I was thinking about this the other day. Growing up I always liked things like Disney, I guess, things that are very slick. Even when I was a little kid I liked things that were really well packaged, it might just be me being a Virgo, but I just gravitated towards things that were tightly put together and constructed, things like Andy Warhol, when I started learning about art.

I think people like Damien Hirst and Matthew Barney, those types of people have a very slick way of approaching art and that was my taste. I like that idea, of something that you toil over for a really long time but it still looks like you bought it.

End part one. Look for part two tomorrow, or listen to it all at: oneculture.mypodcast.com

Alex Da Corte, I Attach Myself to You

Stonefox Artspace, December 11th 2007-february 12th 2008.


Just Give me a Fucking Chance

The bit of printed paper matter provided as a didactic (read the entire PR on artcal) for Alex Da Corte's one-man show at Stonefox Artspace (and only the second exhibition hosted at the architectural firm) informs me that Alex's photographs and related sculptures "explore the nature of intimacy in a digital world where online dating, chat rooms, Mspace.com, blogs, etc. increasingly supplant real human interaction." but I don't really agree with that at all. To my mind I Attach Myself to You is a rather dark exploration of the desperation involved in upward mobility and the struggle to be noticed by the world at large ("Just Give Me A Fucking Chance"). This struggle might be aided by more recent technological innovations via the internet, it might be easier today to achieve a taste of fame, but the struggle is an old game.

Alex Da Corte's work has always been a little bit difficult for me to understand, it is easy to write it off as surface-oriented and shallow, but there's always this little tint of darkness behind the glitter that puts you in mind of waking up with a really bad hangover after too-much party and remembering that you aren't immortal ("Forever and Ever"). Da Corte's "Activities" (the photographs) illustrate this by causing seemingly innocuous materials associated with having a good time; glitter, jam, etc. to become sources of pain. There is evidence ("The Lights go on") that Alex has tapped into the stress of the, probably imagined, "digital eye"--a force of cell phones, networking sights, and internet connection that leaves you feeling like you are always on stage, forever watched, never off.


Activity #31 (Black Eye)

There is no doubt that Alex is a product of a generation involved with the trappings of youth, energy, and vitality (one thinks of Dash Snow, or Aaron Young) who are beginning to see communication, fame, and memory in a different way. I believe I Attach Myself to You is Mr. Da Corte's most honest work to date.


The Lights go on


Shoop Shoop A Doop A Doo


Forever and Ever (Gold Edition)

VERY IMPORTANT.

1. ALEX DA CORTE TONIGHT IN NEW YORK at Stonefox Artspace.



2. A NEW MIX on Will Pym's site by Mr. Anthony Campuzano/tc/bubbles inc.



Spread the love,

Annette

P.S. I may have time for substance later on.