REINCARNATION

DENNON ARMSTRONG

April 11th – 14th, 2013

Artist Talk: April 11th, 2pm

Opening Reception: April 11th 7-9pm

In reinCARnation Armstrong transforms found objects to give them new life through painting. Dead pieces of metal are unearthed from the scrapyard and used as canvases for paintings of strange hybrids between alien and earthly creatures.  The metal canvases are half rotted discarded hoods, doors and fenders of old vehicles. Painted in vivid colour and pattern, Armstrong intuitively allows the creatures to emerge from the forms and shapes of the vehicle body parts.

The fragmented car bodies are the remains of 1940-50’s era automobiles; they evoke a sense of nostalgia and a longing for mid century design. However this idea of style and design is something from the past; no matter how we try to reinvent it or resurrect it, it wont be the same and that is why the repainted forms have taken on a grotesque appearance. Taking the past, in the form of the dismembered and transformed car parts, into the present – confronts us with the inability to fully grasp the past except in a mutated form. Our memories are present but cluttered by a hideous yet captivating visage.