On the occasion of What
is Yours is Mine by Environmental Services currently on view at
DODGEgallery in NYC.
Enviromental Services, owned/operated and staffed by Doug
Weathersby and commonly referred to as ES, might be defined as a corporate
entity masquerading as an artistic endeavor – or an artist playing at blue collar
professionalism to justify artistic events that concluded when the client
receives their invoice. Talking about
Weatherby’s project in the terms of “artist as company” is not interesting –
and thankfully something the artist doesn’t pursue. What is interesting about Weathersby’s ES is that his
practice and product cannot be divided – and I don’t mean this in the boring
the “artist is his art” kinda’ way – I mean it’s fascinating because ES as an
entity is always open for business. The caveat is that thru ES Weathersby does
not have to choose between work or play, the studio practice or the “getting of
money to pay my rent” practice or any other dichotomy you could think up that typically
divides an artist’s day to day routine.
When you step into the show at DODGEgallery you’re presented
with a bunch of objects in a bunch of styles (to be perfectly scientific about
it). There’s photography, woodcarving,
carpentry, painting and drawing – all very well done respectively. Weathersby
knows how to make shit and he knows when to do something really well (a carved
8’ X-mas tree that resembles a cartoon tear or a really dangly severve
head-cold like booger) or completely backasswards (cutting, what looks like, a
12” diameter, 1’ tall and then some, stump with dangerously unwieldy saw-zall)
to get what he wants. Each object in
the show originated with other peoples art. He visited the stable of artists at Dodge and gave them a
very simple premise – let me use something of yours (whether it’s scrap or a
finished piece) and I’ll do something for you. His one rule was that whatever he took from those artists he
must put to use – no waste. This idea
plays out in the gallery in two beautiful ways.
1. Can you be didactically
didactic? Yes. Does that mean it
has to be explanatory and dry? No. Weathersby exhibits photos that have a
bit of floating text describing his day’s activities, with dates and other
pieces of vital information, such as money spent and hours worked - ES Logs as
they’re called. Really these photos are not much more than someone’s diary
except that each and every image is worth spending time with (they ain’t lazy
pictures). A video plays on a
corner wall that recorded (from what I can tell) the fabrication of most of the
pieces in the show. You can pick
out which artists made it into which piece in Weathersby’s exhibition but that
has no bearing on its successes or failures. This is why the show is so good -the source material is
essential but it has no inherent value for this viewer. Taylor Davis’ bits got cut up into a
wall shelf/pedestal. Weathersby
decided to divide the material exponentially in half. He made cuts in her sheet
goods by half every time – which results in this wave of squares that grows
elegantly from the floor. Davis’ wood lost its brooding edge – Weathersby makes
it laugh. But the point is that it
doesn’t matter that the material belonged to an artist – that’s just a neat factoid
– gravy drizzled over the meat of the show.
2. If you throw it away
does that means its garbage? Maybe, but not always. What does it mean if I find things I really like in the
trash? You’d be fun to hang out with.
The failure dumpster is largest sculpture in the show and appropriately
titled ES Art Storage. Imagine a large dumpster, so big it has
one of those sliding square doors near the top and you’ll get the idea. This dumpster contains every bit from
every artist Weathersby involved and acts as a centerpiece for the
exhibition. Inside the dumpster
one of the ES Logs is perched in a nest of shards and leavings. The exterior form
of the object looks like a dumpster but because the walls of the thing are made
from steel stencils and various plywoods and the “hatch” is a pitch-back (a
little-leaguers device used to practice accuracy whereby a ball is thrown at it
and netting strung in the aluminum frame bounces the ball back at the thrower –
a one sided game of catch) and little green army men glued into platoons adorn the
surface - this thing almost begins to resemble a fort. Like a kid’s playhouse where everyone
from the neighborhood came over with whatever they could steal from the shed
out back and threw it together. The
fort-like appearance of the object makes a nice symmetry with the thrust of the
show as a whole because in a way it is the analog version of the video that
plays in the corner. Point of fact
Weathersby built ES Art Storage in
the gallery with his leftovers.
Weathersby has designed a project that allows him to make
art all the time – literally. And
then he is literal about display and putting this work into the world. This could be very boring and dull and
easily overwrought but Weathersby pulls it off. And I know why he pulls it off. Firstly he uses a wood-glue that cures to a perfect hue of
safety orange and secondly there’s no nonsense. This dude, from the work at
least, is not in the world throwing pigment in the air and quoting shit poetry
while dancing in the dark. The
work is direct and clear and offers something very tangible to the viewer.
Weathersby suggests that the creative moment is not isolated to a certain time
of day or financial comfort and, thankfully, on the other hand he’s not
proposing any romantic nonsense of art and artists. This show works for all the right reasons.
Enviromental Services
J. 12 – F. 17 @ DODGEgallery 15 Rivington St., NYC
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