East Gallery
Located in the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts.
photo: Ken Eck
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EXHIBITION ON VIEW
Now - January 5, 2020
JAMES CARL: OOF
Canadian artist James Carl makes his first major US debut with his exhibition: James Carl: oof, on view in GFS’s East Gallery through January 5, 2020.
James Carl: oof features a monumentally scaled wall relief constructed from corrugated cardboard. It uses the iconic cast-pulp commercial egg carton as a formal starting point and explodes that structure across the full length of the East Gallery’s 80’ long accordion-shaped wall. Carl’s geometric version of the egg carton is computer-cut, hand-assembled, and installed by the dozens on the vast wall. Carl observes that the work’s visual “noise” will contrast with its acoustic flattening on the space.
As with much of Carl’s work, oof makes use of common materials and cultural reference points in the generation of a visually charged experience. The title of the work alludes simultaneously to the visual punch of the piece and to the French word, oeuf, meaning ‘egg’. “Relief sculpture is explicit in its reliance on architecture to give it a place in the world. It struggles with three dimensionality and autonomy, using spatial illusion, pattern, and implied movement as means to exceed its architectural confines,” says Carl.
