ALL THAT GLITTERS... THE ART OF ROBERT MORGAN
by Phillip March Jones, Linda Blackford, Van Meter Pettit, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Robert Morgan began his art career as a scavenger collecting photos, personal mementos and everyday objects from the homes of young gay men who were the victims of AIDS, alcoholism and drug abuse. These objects, regardless of their original significance, were routinely abandoned or thrown away by families that had little use for the remainders of their sons' lives. Blessed with a strong sense of curiosity and a perverse Midas touch, Morgan was able to turn those banal objects into works of art through a complex method of assemblage and adornment. Objects are wrapped, glued and nailed together - infused with religious and personal iconography - and then covered in a thick layer of polyurethane making them glisten and shine like glass. But all that glitters...
Is not gold. It is garbage, junk, trash, detritus, personal, anonymous and all but completely forgotten. It is bottle caps, construction netting, baby dolls and caution tape. But it glitters all the same. The show's title, All That Glitters... is an abbreviated misquote from Shakespeare's original line, "All that glisters is not gold." Morgan's work is the result of a lifelong accumulation of tangible "quotes" - objects taken from the piles of what is left after their original lives have ended. These objects of all shapes and sizes make their way to Morgan's studio and are reassigned meaning by the artist, assembled into the massive altar in the living room, piled in the bedroom or tacked onto a work in progress. Misquoting, re-purposing, re-inventing are the tools that drive Morgan's creative process.
The most recent incarnation of Morgan's accumulative process manifests itself in the form of small army. Saints, warriors and sentries - on foot and on horse - march through the gallery and into the street towards the eager eyes and faces pressed up against the gallery's front window. Created in conjunction with Lexington's EcoGrant program, this exhibition and catalog address the concept of recycling both physically and conceptually. Morgan's work litterally recycles and repurposes trash, but more importantly, it recycles memories, experiences and stories that would have otherwise been thrown away.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director
LOUIS ZOELLAR BICKETT II: SELECTIONS FROM THE ARCHIVE
by Phillip March Jones, Guy Mendes, Louis Zoellar Bickett II
Director's Note:
Since 1972, Louis Zoellar Bickett II has meticulously collected and cataloged items from his daily life and assembled them into a functioning installation he refers to as: THE ARCHIVE. Photographs, dinner receipts, dog brushes, jars, binders and items of every sort are tagged and neatly placed within the 3-D collage that serves as home and studio to the artist. The archive's contents are seemingly endless and infinitely varied.
Bickett's genius lies in his ability to transform the most basic object into a highly sophisticated work of art using a simple associative process. The collection, organization and archiving of everyday objects imbues them with significance beyond function or simple metaphor. Every object is tagged with a name and date, corresponding to a set of events, an idea or some larger on-going project. The object's viewer knows precisely what it is, where its from, why it was purchased, the name of its previous owner or the role that it plays in the artist's life. Its placement within the archive further secures its importance and guarantees its survival. Sculptures, photographs and paintings are tagged in the same manner (and with the same precision) as flashlights, bowling bags and hats. Certain objects are "tagged" or "stamped" several times to reflect their inclusion in several projects. The debate about "what is art" is clearly answered in Bickett's process: anything I choose.
Selections from the Archive is a quick glance at a seemingly random sampling of objects. It is not intended to be a retrospective or an accounting of various projects. Indeed there are too many for a book and exhibition of this size. The intention is rather to select objects that resonate with simplicity and illuminate the artist's transformative abilities while hinting at the larger themes of sex, identity and death that permeate Bickett's work. Furiously collecting and archiving towards death, Bickett has become the central object of the archive - missing only the tag he will receive, not unlike the rest of us, upon his own death. With this book, we invite the viewer into the artist's studio for a fleeting glance at Bickett's work and the machinations of his vast and ever-growing archive.
-Phillip March Jones, Creative Director