Joseph Weidenbaum
Wreckage
7 September – 24 September 2011
I find discarded things. Things people have sold, lost, forgotten, or merely handed on. Boxes that were posted, suitcases people traveled with, crates they received or sent, bags they filled then emptied and ammunition containers that were once used.
I take things apart making a wreckage of history’s own wreckage. This way of making art is not just to explore what has been lost to history, but also to explore what we might find. Uncovered names and addresses, curious scratches, stains and surfaces become the things I can appropriate, re-use and make art with.
In this series red, white and blue become my predominant colors, using mainly timber, metal, and leather. In the processes of creating these works I realized that these colors speak of our flag as well as the UK and US flags. Western culture has embedded stories of migration, appropriation, and loss, we might imagine ourselves as a nation in isolation, but we share a global history through the many journeys we took to the present day.
We share history, but we are also very different, coming together in local communities and building new spaces and relationships like a bricolage. In this way, my artworks or wreckages are not necessarily destructive they are also about the people we find and sustain.
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
