To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Miami’s Dorsch Gallery will now be known as Emerson Dorsch. The name change coincides with a complete renovation of their Wynwood district space in Miami, and will launch with a reception on April 12th, with sculpture Brookhart Jonquil’s “In Perfect World, as well as new media artist Rene Barge’s “Relay (Flow) in the project room.
BROOKHART JONQUIL: In a Perfect World
On view will be a new series of large scale sculptures rendered in wooden scaffolding and intricately angled mirrors, which combine to create illusory forms in the immaterial realm.
Jonquil works with the material, virtual, and phantasmic mechanisms of reflection. In his statement, Jonquil discusses reflection and the relation of virtual or ideal space to the constantly changing world. Made of angled mirrors and bowed rods, his four sculptures hang at the cardinal points of the room. Each sculpture has a unique physical structure, yet, in their multiple reflections, the structures produce an immaterial form that is echoed in all four sculptures. Jonquil writes, “it is as if together the four sculptures create a proof of the existence of a fifth shape which is nowhere present.”
Jonquil is interested in Albert Einstein’s concept of ether, relating it to other ideals, or ideas of existence outside of this world, like Plato’s gold, Michel Foucault’s heterotopias and Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Maps.
Jonquil’s recent major exhibitions include 2012’s Inverted Night at the de la Cruz Collection in Miami; a major installation in collaboration with Yara and Chat Travieso of Young Arts for the 2012 Art Live Fair in Miami; and a large-scale sculpture, Lumber Icosahedron, in Young Curators, New Ideas IV, organized by Mr. and Mrs. Amani Olu in New York in 2011. He was shortlisted for the 2011 Miami PULSE Prize and is prominently featured in the 2012 Andrew Hevia Documentary “Rising Tide: A Story of Miami Artists”. He was Artist in Residence at MoCA Tucson in 2012. This is his second exhibition at Emerson Dorsch, where he is exclusively represented.
Brookhart Jonquil was born in Santa Cruz, California in 1984 and lives and works in Miami, Florida. Jonquil received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010, as well as a Bachelor in Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Arizona in 2007.
A brochure featuring an artist’s statement and essay by Katherine Pill, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, will accompany the exhibition.
RENE BARGE: Relay (Flow)
The installation, titled Relay (Flow), is a multi-channel, performative sound installation. Constructed simply from an amplifier with sonic drivers, bendable plywood, and Dynaband, Relay (Flow) can be re-arranged to create a variety of experiences, and will be reconfigured weekly for the duration of the exhibit.
In his historic 1968 essay “Anti-form”, Robert Morris argued that in order to avoid becoming entrenched in traditional forms, an artist must be suspicious of pre-ordainded ends and allow the process, the tools, and the present context the chance to shape the final form. If the agent in the action is sufficiently open to the demands of the material or the particulars of the tool, the end object may be surprising. Barge re-thinks the process of consumption in this series of work as not passive or active, but “participatory.” Barge indeed values the effects of his tools, his materials, and his cultural context on his process, and therefore on the end result. He seeks to highlight the humanity as opposed to the machine (analog or digital) as agent in that process, beyond even Morris’ concerns.
Barge buys the plywood base of the sculpture and torques it with Dynaband resistance bands similar to those found in exercise machines. He records the sounds of the construction then disassembles the sculpture, returns its components to the store, and purchases new components to repeat the process. The result is an algorithm, like those of basic computer science. In this case Barge is a living agent in the loop, not an unthinking computer. He writes: “The process is exhausting, not to reach an end, but rather a beginning. It is ongoing!” Process begets new processes.
Rene Barge works in a variety of media including sound, sculpture, printmaking and video. He has a BFA from Florida International University. Relay is his fifth solo exhibition at Emerson Dorsch. Selected group exhibitions include Wedding Crashers, curated by Ralph Provisero, at the Deering Estate (Miami, FL), Sound, curated by Gustavo Matamoros at the Bass Museum of Art (Miami Beach, FL) and Light and Atmosphere, curated by Cheryl Hartup at Miami Art Museum (Miami, FL). He has collaborated with Gustavo Matamoros and David Dunn as Frozen Music (FM) since 2009, who have performed in venues such as Lincoln Park Conservatory (Chicago, IL), Miami Art Museum (Miami, FL), and Carl Fischer House (Miami Beach, FL). From 1994-2004 he collaborated regularly with Frank Felestra (aka Rat Bastard), Gerard Klauder, and Dan Hosker in various venues around the United States. He performed with Cavity, an experimental sludge metal band from 1992-2003.