Charles Gaines
Lurid Stories: Projects from 1995-2001
March 16 – April 27, 2002
Luckman Gallery, Cal State L.A.
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032-8116
Tel. (323) 343-6604
Charles Gaines, “Airplanecrash Clock,” 1997
Accomplished Los Angeles-based conceptual artist, instructor and writer, Charles Gaines is described by Franklin Sirmans as ” a part of the 1970s generation of artists for whom the crossover between studio and the seminar is a crucial facet of their work, one that can be slowly gleaned and understood through the philosophical nature of his art, which always prompts more questions than answers. Like (Robert) Smithson, Gaines is interested in a kaleidoscopic between-ness with enough room for cosmic perspectives and the sublimities of doubt delivered ironically and with uncanny clarity….” *
Among the works featured in this seven-year survey exhibition are two of Gaines’ “disaster machines,” Airplane Crash Clock (1997) and Falling Rock (2000). Invoking emotion and spectacle as a means of engagement, these automated sculptures enact generic disasters based on arbitrary time schedules: in one a toy plane crashes into an urban landscape, in another a boulder crashes through a sheet of glass. Also included are works from the following series: Night/Crimes (1995), juxtaposing images from the L.A.P.D. and Los Angeles Times archives with photographs of the night sky from the evening the documented incident occurred; Absent Figures (2000-2001), which approach the representation of landscape in relationship to spectacle; and Cancelled Checks (2000), comprising hundreds of bank checks made out to the first sentence in books selected from the artist’s personal library.
*CATALOGUE AVAILABLE: $10.00 (U.S.) + shipping
Color-illustrated with essays by the artist and Franklin Sirmans (28 pgs)
RELATED EVENTS
Opening reception: Saturday, March 16, from 6 – 8:00 p.m.
Artist’s Talk: Charles Gaines, Thursday, April 11 at 6pm.
Lecture: Franklin Sirmans, Monday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Lurid Stories was organized by the San Francisco Art Institute’s Walter and McBean Galleries as the 2001 Adaline Kent Award Exhibition and presented at the San Francisco Art Institute from June 14 – July 28, 2001. The presentation of the exhibition at the Luckman Gallery has been made possible through a generous grant from the Pasadena Art Alliance.
For more information go to: h www.e-flux.com/site2002/index.phtml?client=welcome/lg
