Myth and Mutations 4/10 – 5/2

 

OPENING FRIDAY APRIL 10TH, 7 – 9PM

REVERSE is pleased to present MYTH AND MUTATIONS, curated by Chris Romero. MYTH AND MUTATIONS features six artists that combine symbols of the past with subject matter found in contemporary culture including emojis, memes, video games, and consumer products. The artists demonstrate that mythologies forever transform, coalesce, and split into new allegories. However, as these allegories undergo certain metamorphic changes, they acquire a close relation to present-day desires, fears, truths, and morals. On display is a diverse range of mediums including video installation, animation, illustration, and 3D printed sculpture.

Richie Brown’s “Brown Magick Oracle Deck” is a series of fortune cards featuring icons from traditional oracle decks – a vase, a sword – mixed with images chosen by the artist – an alien, Santa Claus, googly eyed poo. During the exhibition Brown will provide readings, create new cards, and explain how to perform readings. The film “Over the Rainbow” by Rachel MacLean features a hyper-glowing rainbow filled world inhabited by cuddly monsters and gruesome pop divas. Shot entirely in green screen with Maclean as the sole performer, divergent iconographies merge together presenting a dark parody of a fairy tale and horror movie genres.

Jonathan Monaghan’s “The Checkpoint” series of prints is a reimagining of Albrecht Durer’s 15th century woodcut “The Triumphal Arch. Rather than featuring griffons or heraldic crests akin to Durer’s woodcut, Monaghan’s architectural structure is comprised of security cameras, video game weaponry, and floating Whole Foods logos. The miniature theater-box-video installations, “Laid in Earth” and “La Medea (TV)” by Yara Travieso, observe Greek tragedies, spectacles, and the void. “Laid In Earth” (in collaboration with Mira Lehr) is a reimagining of the opera “Dido and Aeneas” by Henry Purcell, whereas “La Medea (TV)” adapts Euripides’ myth, “Medea”, as a Latin American variety show.

“Ambient Occlusion” a series of 3D printed sculptures by Wang Yefeng combines and breaks apart the human figure, American automobiles and beasts of Chinese and Greco-Roman fables. The figures, posed in classical Renaissance form also contain attributes of the Chinese dragon and the centaur. In the video animation “Red Ginseng” Yaloopop‘s virtual landscape features pink creatures performing the Citizen Health Workout Routine, designed by the South Korean government to enhance national well-being for the next thousand years. Inspired by the rumored cure-all qualities of Red Ginseng, the creatures perform their routine amongst flowing streams of pink-hued ginseng hinting at a thirst for immortality.

An essay and glossary of iconographic references will accompany the exhibition.