Matthew Brannon
A question answered with a quote
29 January– 3 April 2011
Opening:
28 January 2011, 8pm
Press preview:
28 January 2011, 11am
Lecture:
Städelschule
26 January 2011, 7pm
Alte Brücke 2 / Maininsel
60594 Frankfurt am Main
In his work, proceeding rigorously and sometimes with macabre enthusiasm, Brannon dissects a consumerist society that seems to be teetering on the edge of destruction. Immoderation, greed, excesses, and most gravely, indomitable hedonism: these, it seems, are central elements of contemporary life as Brannon sees it. In prints, wallpapers, films, sound pieces, and writings, and most recently also in paintings, the artist articulates his personal views of what the filmmaker Jean Renoir—whom Brannon often cites—has called a “rotten society.”
The imagery to which the artist’s works refer is only too familiar, featuring messy banquet leftovers, abandoned office landscapes, adult toys and other accessories made by the entertainment industry, pseudo-luxury versions of articles of daily use, and various alcoholic beverages and culinary delights—the stereotypes of a globalized jet-set culture. Brannon’s prints combine the superficiality of such simplified forms and their content with acerbic narrative texts, uncovering a deeper—and sometimes abysmal—meaning concealed in these banal situations. In such paradoxical confrontations, Matthew Brannon examines not just the complexity of socially established signs and the various interpretations that can be put on them; he also solicits the meanings generated by the beholder’s bafflement. At Portikus, Brannon will show his prints alongside an ornamental wallpaper design and a sound piece entitled Gag. He also produced a special edition print.
For more information and guided tours of the exhibition please contact info@portikus.de
Director: Nikolaus Hirsch
Curator: Sophie von Olfers
Portikus
Alte Brücke 2 / Maininsel
60594 Frankfurt am Main
www.portikus.de
