Shit Houses
The art at "Gallery Hijinks Inaugural Exhibition" is all about examining the tensions between various opposites. Brynda Glazier’s sculptures contrast utopian idealism and dystopian decay, while Lisa Congdon explores modernism versus deterioration. Ryan Riss is a pop-art enfant terrible, bulldozing over high/low art distinctions with his vibrant mash-ups of comic art, hip-hop tropes, and horror movie imagery, andwhile Chinese emigre Jing Wei locates a forlorn solitude in the cute and cartoon-like. But the most transfixing (and provocatively named) works may be Morgan Blair’s shit houses. Don’t let the scatological titles turn you off: Blair’s houses are not made of actual shit, but are really highly geometric structural drawings of homes. If you linger on her highly disciplined renderings, the shit-stained state of decomposition hidden within emerges. Blair is juxtaposing our desire to create order out of chaos with the innately primal human state; the refined design of her work highlights the uneasiness of this relationship. Reconciling opposites is far from a unique subject in the art world, but this is a solid set of work that thrives on its unsettling juxtapositions, and makes a strong case that the gallery is a promising new venue for the bustling Mission art community.
Sat., Aug. 21, 6 p.m.; Aug. 22-Sept. 10, 2010
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