New Art - Plantation Digest

I decided to combine what were stand alone panels into one cohesive piece. The initial idea was to create a faux magazine that would have been read by plantation owners had it existed. After looking at a few 'lifestyle' magazines, I noticed that many had advertisements up front followed by table of contents, editor's note, etc. Since I had already created the advertisements (all of the J. CROW pages), I decided to redo them on thinner panels and hinge them together to resemble a magazine layout. I'm quite happy with the outcome and who knows, I may just continue to expand upon the piece by the time it makes it to the exhibition at REDUX in March.

I needed to submit work for the Biennial that was newer than 3 years old. Since I had been working on the UNC Mural much of that time and then went headlong into the plantation pieces, I decided to preview one of the pieces in the Biennial. It will interesting to see what kind of a response it garners.

Plantation Digest
32" x 44" (each panel)

Gel Transfer and Acrylic on Birch Plywood

INDIVIDUAL PANELS:

 

 

New Art - Plantation Digest

I have been in the process of using a 3D architectural program to put together the Plantation exhibition at REDUX Studios. I wanted to include the J. CROW Advertisements but somehow they didn't seem to fit within the overall context. After staring at all of the pieces with a couple glasses of wine for clarity (in vivo, veritas!), I understood what was wrong and what needed to be done. Needless to say - 1 piece was destroyed (Black Tie Affair) and another modified (Blaccessories). The logic behind the destruction and rebirth was simple: if the stand alone panels were to be combined as one piece they needed to support an overall narrative which was missing. They needed two other pieces in support. If these were indeed intended to be ads in a fictional magazine that may have existed in that era - then what was the magazine? Enter ---> Plantation Digest!

Plantation Digest
36" x 48"
Gel and acrylic on board

As you can see - one of the teaser articles on the cover is 'J. CROW - Dressing for Succession' - which relates directly to the fake ads. The overall piece will have five panels with the cover going first, followed by 'Look Solid With Stripes'. It is meant to represent the first five pages of the Digest as though you were actually reading it. The next missing piece is being planned as I write and will be a letter from the editor. The corresponding text will help to shed some insight into the piece (not too much - let the viewer bring something to the piece!). I am finally happy with the display and can't wait to see it completed! Now I just have to figure out where it should be hung in the exhibition.