We just received an email from Andy Diaz Hope, giving us a sneak peak at his and Laurel Roth‘s new show at Schroeder Romero & Shredder Gallery in New York titled 2011 opening November 17th.
“2011 humorously references the ambiguous time in our history between the 2001/2010 movies which hint at possible salvation for humanity and the birth of new worlds and 2012 with its predictions that it will bring about the end of the world. It is in this in between time that our show takes place. We’ve been working for over a year on this work and are really excited to share it.”
Below the images, you can find the press release for the show itself. So if you’re in the New York area around November/December, drop in and be amazed.
"Reflection Engine" by Andy Diaz Hope & Laurel Roth
Andy Diaz Hope + Laurel Roth. Reflection Engine. 2011. 36 x 61 x 92 inches. Made of hand carved walnut, mirror, brass, gold and silver leaf, and flicker bulbs.
Andy Diaz Hope + Laurel Roth. Reflection Engine (detail of interior) 2011. 36 x 61 x 92 inches. Made of hand carved walnut, mirror, brass, and flicker bulbs.
"Beauty" by Laurel Roth
Laurel Roth. Beauty. 2011.46 x 36 x 67 inches. Mixed media including fake fingernails, barrettes, false eyelashes, nail polish, costume jewelry, walnut, and swarovski crystal.
"Geode" by Andy Diaz Hope
Andy Diaz Hope. Geode. 2011. 22 x 12 x 36 inches. Handmade 2 way mirror, mirror, lead, and video.
"Hominid: Mountain Gorilla" by Laurel Roth
Laurel Roth. Hominid: Mountain Gorilla. 2011. 13 x 9 x 8 inches. Made of walnut and swarovski crystal.
"Centering Device #4" by Andy Diaz Hope
Andy Diaz Hope. Centering Device #4. 2011. 36 x 36 x 10 inches. Made of mirror and lead.
“Our show, titled 2011, uses the tableau of a grotto to explore the odyssey and definition of humankind. This grotto was conceptualized with an eye to the longstanding relationship of humankind to caves and the millennia of slow processes that created them even before modern man started his own development towards the present. Grottos are different than caves, though they allude to them. A grotto is a mix of the sacred and the profane – by definition it is artificial to some degree, a man-made enclosure representing the inner world of humankind and intended to mimic an idealized and mythologized underworld. They are spaces meant for relaxation, contemplation, mythology, and sometimes worship. We interpret what our senses perceive, like fire-cast flickering images on cave walls (Plato’s Allegory of the Cave), and use those perceptions to try to locate our place in the larger world. By it’s artificial nature the grotto hints at the limitations of our own human perceptions to perceive infinity and objective reality, while simultaneously paying homage to the attempt to do.
In the center of the gallery lies Andy Diaz Hope’s Infinite Mortal – a large militaristic asteroid that has crashed to earth (or is hurtling away from it, depending on your place in time) bringing with it the illusion of encapsulating the infinite within its matte-black shell. In an alcove towards the back of the gallery is a large collaborative piece, The Reflection Engine, which takes the form of an elaborately carved walnut wardrobe, the inside of which is mirrored like a crystal geode in which you can sit, door closed, and surround yourself with self-reflections in an ever expanding infinity. The Allegory of the Infinite Mortal, also a collaborative piece, is a woven jacquard tapestry depicting the intellectual structures humankind uses to try to understand the infinite. Laurel Roth’s pair of battling peacocks, titled Beauty and assembled out of fake fingernails, barrettes, and costume jewelry, encourage examination of rules of attraction and competition as part of mating and natural selection.
In a facetted gallery cavern hang multifaceted white and mirror sculptures of both futuristic and primitive aesthetics from Diaz Hope’s Infinite Mortal series, reflecting infinite loops of light and video in sculptures based on geological formations. Juxtaposed among these crystal formations, Roth’s carved wood and cast brass primate skulls highlight the evolutionary changes that brought about the numinous transformation into modern humankind. Carved wooden skulls and bones of animals that evolved alongside of us, first hunted and then eventually domesticated, bred, and controlled by humans for use as food are displayed near these offshoots of our own evolutionary path.
All of the work is intended to question what it means to be human on this evolutionary path through time.”
