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More Medium Dead

More Medium Dead
April 7 - May 21, 2023
Novella - Philadelphia, PA
curated by Franco Andrés Rodriguez

See Medium Dead for an introduction to the overall project. In More Medium Dead, viewers experience the sculptures in a gallery, and I extend the push-puppet visual language into other art objects. When fabricating the original Medium Dead installation, I used the formal logic of the push puppet (segmentation, roundedness, reduction) to guide the design of associated objects—a dining set, a potted plant, Amazon boxes, and a street light. In More Medium Dead, I consider that logic’s influence on two-dimensional images. Animated cartoons also segment, round, and reduce the world. I borrow the animation techniques “big ball of violence” (also “fight cloud”) and smear frame to inform two series of paintings. The Big Ball paintings agglomerate the push puppet segments into a spherical mass. The Moving Flower series uses frame animation and the smear technique to present a floral version of the push puppet’s erect-collapse cycle.
credits
Franco Andrés Rodriguez  - curator
Matthew Tower - install help
Ben Peterson - install help
DJ Hellerman - install help
A photograph of an art installation featuring multiple figurative wooden sculptures. The life-sized sculptures resemble push puppet toys.
[An overview photograph of More Medium Dead installed at Novella Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. The exhibition features six life-sized, figurative sculptures that resemble push puppet toys. In the foreground, a figure painted with light brown skin and dark brown hair leans forward. Ropes connect the figure's hand to two dogs, also rendered in the push-puppet style. The work is called Dog Walker. In the background, two figures sit in yellow chairs at a yellow table; two figures resemble boxers and lean into each other; and one figure, wearing only white underwear, sits on a box with its head pointing down. The figures are elevated on wooden platforms with open sides. These sculptures are positioned in a gallery with white walls and a worn, wooden plank floor.]
A photograph of an art installation featuring multiple figurative wooden sculptures. The life-sized sculptures resemble push puppet toys.
[Another view of the sculpture called Dog Walker. In the photograph, the dimpled texture and medium sheen of the painted, wooden, life-size push puppet is evident. In the background, portions of other figurative sculptures elevated on platforms are visible. On the left side of the photograph, a small painting of a cartoonized wilted flower hangs on the gallery wall in a chunky, blue frame. The blue of the frame and the blue of the foreground figure's shirt match.]
A photograph of an art installation featuring multiple figurative wooden sculptures. The life-sized sculptures resemble push puppet toys.
[Two wooden sculptures of life-size push puppets feature in this photograph. On the left, two figures that resemble boxers lean into each other. The work is called Boxers. On the right is Morning Coffee, in which two figures sit in yellow chairs at a yellow table.  The two pairs of figures are elevated on their own wooden platforms with open sides. In Morning Coffee, platform is painted to resemble a green-and-white tile floor. In the photograph, to the right of the figures, a sculpture of an abstracted, wilting, pink flower in a small blue vase rests on a small plank of wood painted to resemble wood. These sculptures are positioned in a gallery with white walls and a worn, wooden plank floor.]
A photograph of two wooden, life-sized, figurative sculptures that resemble push puppet toys. The two figures are painted to look like boxers. One sculpture’s head rests on the other sculpture’s shoulder.
[A photograph featuring the sculpture called Boxers. Two life-size wooden figures are painted to look like boxers. The paint suggests the figure on the left has brown skin and the figure on the right has pink skin. The left figure wears light blue shorts. The right figure wears dark green shorts. Both wear light cream socks and shoes. The figures face each other. The right figure’s head rests on the left figure’s shoulder. The two figures are elevated two feet up on a wooden platform with open sides.]
A photograph of a life-sized, figurative sculpture that resembles a push puppet toy. The wooden figure is painted to look like a man with pink skin wearing nothing but white underwear.
[A photograph of the sculpture called Man. This wooden figure, painted to look like a man with pink skin and white underwear, sits on a wooden box painted to look like an Amazon delivery box. He looks down. His right arm hangs heavy by his side. His left arm rests on a white half-wall. An open-sided wooden plinth, painted to look like wood, elevates the figure two feet off the ground.]
[A 3D scan of Man.]
A photograph of a dark blue, abstract drawing with a white mat in a sky blue frame. The frame hangs on a white wall.
[A photograph of Nighttime Abstraction, Number 1, an abstract drawing with a white mat in a sky blue frame. The drawing, rendered in paint and pencil, is a grouping of four similarly-sized, sausage-shaped objects. The arrangement of these sausage-like objects resembles a figure with one leg lifted, its left. In the drawing, it appears that the arrangement objects casts a shadow. The objects and the background are shades of cyan. The frame hangs on a white wall.]
A photograph of a life-sized wooden sculpture of a man that resembles a push puppet toy in a gallery space with similar sculptures.
[Another view of Man. This wooden figure is painted to look like a man with pink skin. We see him from the side. A half-wall obscures half of his body. We see the head, torso, and top of one leg. He is sitting. The wall holds his left arm. His visible ear is black lines: an x inside a backwards c. The man’s other details are not visible in this photograph. Similar sculptures appear in the background. ]
A photograph of a yellow, abstract drawing with a white mat in an aluminum frame. The frame hangs on a white gallery wall.
[A photograph featuring Daytime Big Ball, Number 1, a framed yellow drawing with a colorful, circular shape at its center. The drawing, rendered in paint and pencil, is a grouping of dozens of multicolored pill- and sausage-shaped objects. The arrangement of these objects resembles a sphere itself. The sphere casts a shadow of hastily-drawn pencil lines. The background is solid yellow. Portions of other sculptures are visible in the photograph.]
Detailed view of an abstract drawing featuring a sphere-like mass of multicolored objects. The background is bright yellow.
[A detailed view of the drawing called Daytime Big Ball, Number 1. The quality of the pencil lines suggests a frantic application to the textured paper, a texture with divots so deep they evade the graphite no matter how dark and repeated the drawn lines. The drawing feels abstract: it is color and shape with no clear referent. Yet it presents articulated forms that reflect and obscure light. The drawing acknowledges a physical world. In the context of the entire exhibition, one may glean that the pill- and sausage-shaped objects in this drawing originate from the forms that articulate the bodies of the push puppet-style sculptures.] 
A photograph of a wooden sculpture that looks like a wilting flower and a painting of a wilting flower in a wooden frame.
[The sculpture on the left side of the photograph is called Flower on Wood, Number 2. The wooden, wilting flower is painted pink with a green, exaggerated stem that resembles a candy cane. The stem emerges out of a small blue vase that rests on a small plank of wood painted to resemble wood. The wooden plank extends out of a white wall. To the right of the flower sculpture, a framed painting called Moving Flower, Number 1 (frame 8 of 12) hangs on the gallery wall. The small, cartoonish painting of a wilting flower is framed in a thick, chartreuse frame made out of texture wood. ]
[A 3D scan of Flower on Wood, Number 2. ]
A photograph of a wooden sculpture that looks like a flower in a vase, resting on a short wooden plank.
[Called Flower on Wood, Number 1, this is a wooden sculpture of a flower that points up and to the right, has pink petals, a yellow center, and dark green stem. The vase is white. It rests on a wooden plank painted to resemble wood. The plank extends out of a white wall.]
A photograph of a painting of a cartoonish wilting flower in a wooden frame.
[A framed painting of a potted wilting flower called Moving Flower, Number 1 (frame 6 of 12). The flower is in a blue pot and has yellow petals, a red center, and a green stem. The flower is depicted in a cartoonish style with black contour lines and minimal details. In the upper right corner of the painting is the number six, which indicates its position in a 12-frame animation. The painting is in a chunky, glossy red frame made of wood. The frame hangs on a white wall]
A scan of four hand-painted frames of an animation featuring a cartoon flower with yellow petals, red center, green stem.
[This scan contains frames 2, 3, 4, and 6 of a looping, 12-frame animation called Moving Flower, Number 1. The animation depicts a cartoon potted flower wilting and then wobbling back to an erect position. The lines that articulate the flower and pot are dark brown enamel painted on the front of a piece of acrylic sheet. The yellow petals, red center, green stem, and blue pot are painted with vinyl paints on the back of the acrylic sheet. Frame 6 features a smear, a distorted and stylized rendering of an object used to suggest motion blur in animation.]
An animated loop of a cartoon flower with yellow petals, red center, green stem swinging back and forth. In the upper right corner, numbers 1 through 12 cycle in quick succession.
[In this looping animation called Moving Flower, Number 1, a flower with yellow petals, red center, and green stem flops back and forth above a stationary blue pot. The flower is rendered with black contour lines and reduced detail. The background is light blue. In the upper right corner, numbers 1 through 12 cycle in quick succession. ]
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