Lonely Are the Brave
Reception: Thursday July 2, 6 – 9 pm thru Saturday, August 15.
Performance Thursday July 2,
8:30 pm
Blue Star Contemporary Art Space
116 Blue Star
San Antonio, TX 78204
Contact: Zinnia Salcedo: 210.227.6960 / zinnia [at] bluestarart.org
Lonely Are the Brave takes its title from the 1962 film, which was based on Edward Abbey’s novel The Brave Cowboy. The exhibition features four artists, Jesse Amado, Justin Boyd, Kelly O’Connor and Chris Sauter, which combine to make a state of the union tableau.
Justin Boyd’s comment about his work — that it is “navigating the byways of Our history, looking for moments of true spirit and conviction” is one of the foundation ideas of the project, which will use the three largest galleries of the space in a group array functioning as a single elegant composition.
From the exhibition publication, written by guest curator, Hills Snyder (Director/Curator of San Antonio’s Sala Diaz):
Cut to 21st Century America — we’re lonely as ever, with one hand on the wheel of a 1962 Chevy Apache pickup with a bumper sticker that says Amnesia, Love It or Leave It. Or maybe it says God Bless A Camera. The dashboard is littered with road trip detritus casting a windshield reflection of where we’ve been. We’re part actor, part hero, part fugitive, part self-observing voyeur, and we’re driving this pickup, direction undetermined. But who are we now — after all we’ve done lately?
Scattered throughout the space are treatments that are not art works as such, but tweaks by the curator whose intention is to tease out some of the meanings that may dwell in the void that is circumnavigated by the artists. These effects, which include painted walls, texts, an extinguished campfire and numerous objects strategically placed in a movie viewing room, are not the indifferent choices of Duchamp, but he is somehow present. He also appears in the film (shown continuously throughout the exhibition) as a truck driver.
Jesse Amado festoons the back wall of the main gallery with his newest work, which relies on fringe as a primary component. There are also elements drawn from internet porn, though as with most erotic art forms, it is what is left out that matters most. His expansive use of the largest gallery wall will provide the landscape within which the rest of the show plays out. Kelly O’Connor likewise has the back wall of the Project Space for her first beyond-the-frame, large-scale experiment utilizing re-contextualized images from pop culture. Chris Sauter’s contribution includes a life-sized reproduction of his childhood bedroom in Boerne and two large format photographs from the AtticRep production of Sam Shepard’s True West. He has also cut the components of a plow out of the wall and reassembled the parts as a rural grace note near the entrance to the space. Justin Boyd provides five text-as-image prints and a Sysyphian sound/performance work with a looping video projection based on a specific section of the film.
“He comprehended that the effort to mold the incoherent and vertiginous matter dreams are made of was the most arduous task one could undertake, though he might penetrate all the enigmas of the upper and lower orders: much more arduous than weaving a rope of sand or coining the faceless wind.”
— Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins