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Crewest Presents: Before The Revolution by Gumano Cesaretti
"A hundred years ago, Emiliano Zapata conscripted Our Lady of Guadalupe
to serve as the symbol of the Mexican revolution. In Gusmano Cesaretti's world,
she's made flesh and walks among us, facing her devotees' oppressors, packing
heat, and reminding us that the first duty of the artist, like the
revolutionary, is to survive." - David Em
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
A Solo Show Exhibition by Gumano Cesaretti
On view from May 1st,
2010 through May 30th, 2010
Los Angeles, CA � Crewest is proud to
announce Before the Revolution a solo show exhibition by Gusmano Cesaretti.
Before the Revolution is Gusmano Cesaretti�s first installation show at the
gallery.
The artist, who emigrated from Italy to Los Angeles in 1970,
has decided to exhibit for the first time in public, his three-part fine art
installation, Before the Revolution, with which he had long experimented
privately while continuing to exercise a parallel vocation, photographing ethnic
enclaves of Greater Los Angeles during the past thirty years. Here, the
photographic image becomes a raw material for the Image Grid, central to the
installation. The artist prints his JPEG files on standard 8� x 11 copy paper,
and, with glue stick, affixes other images to the copy paper, re-photographs
them, and reprints the results on sheets of discarded Japanese packing paper
formerly used to pack porcelain as a measure against breakage. This Japanese
paper has a greater rag content than most Western paper, so without risk of
damage, the artist can crumple it to generate texture.
The Image Grid: Like the readymade, the Image Grid removes a functional
element to a space for viewing art, and thereby alters it, effectively by
destroying its original function and investing it with an aesthetic
functionlessness contrived by the artist.
But unlike the readymade�or
its expansion to encompass mass-produced packaged objects as in early Warhol�the
functional elements that Cesaretti uses are not objects at all, but images,
i.e., functional image-signs (gang totems that demarcate zones of hegemony and
monopolized territories of commerce, murals that are equally functional,
informal and artisanal advertising, etc).
The Virgin Series: Contrary to
the operation of the Image Grid that would reassert the aesthetic image over the
functional image-sign, the Virgin Series, in a sense does the opposite by
re-investing the metonymic image with a functional content as image sign�even
though this function is a supernatural one: the function of the Blessed Virgin
as Protectress.
The Pink Cross: The third principal element of the
installation, the Cross, is a fully realized synthesis of image and functional
image-sign, and GC�s re-interpretation of it emphasizes this synthetic aspect of
it by compelling the viewer�s attention to its role as an image totality that
would encompass the world it would save. This world includes traces of the
shamans who predated its revelation, and who continue to persist despite it. It
includes weapons (here, also protection), organic elements, and a host of images
that would compete with it for devotion.
While exposing the kinship of
its roots in Pop Art and Arte Povera, Before the Revolution, illuminates the
distinction between aestheticized image and the functional image-sign by
revealing their dynamic relation.
Exclusive VIP and Press Event
April
30th, 2010
6-9 pm
Atmosphere enhanced by DJ Phyz Ed spinning hip hop,
funk, 80�s and more. As well as special set by DJ Afrika (Afrika Baby Bam of
Jungle Brothers) from with live performance by Sew Sew Krafty which is comprised
of Wendy Williams and Afrika Baby Bam). More detail to follow.
Opening
Reception
May 1, 2010
6-9 pm
Atmosphere enhanced by DJ Phyz Ed
spinning hip hop, funk, 80's and more
Artwalk Event
May 13th,
2010
6-9 pm
Atmosphere enhanced by DJ Phyz Ed spinning hip hop, funk,
80�s and more from 6-8. As well as special set by DJ Afrika (Afrika Baby Bam of
Jungle Brothers) with a live performance by Sew Sew Krafty which is comprised of
Wendy Williams and Afrika Baby Bam) from 8-9. More detail to follow.
Crewest
110 Winston St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
ph |
213-627-8272
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