Darren Jones: Interstellar Medium, 2012, vintage bottles, etched titles, 6" x 22" x 7"

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on January 28, 2014 at 4:24pm

Curator’s Comment:  

 

This discreet installation reminds me of a Giorgio Morandi painting; subtle, distantly nostalgic and uncluttered.  Having a decidedly figurative shape and association, the lineup of glass containers appears to be more than the sum of its parts, just as the blue and warmer grey tonal cast shadows on the adjacent wall become a theatrical part of the work.  The etching of the former contents of the bottles increases the sensation of fading memory and loss, as the viewer contemplates what is no longer visible.  But while I respond to this work on both a conceptual and aesthetic level, I’m most swayed by the relationship between several of the installations you have posted on the site, and the elegant way they wrap absence and death in a cohesive and emotionally moving package.  It’s the Little Things That Make me Think You Care can be easily overlooked without reading the context of the mouse. The dim keyhole halo around his small body softens any macabre undercurrent and ironically affirms the fleeting certainty of life.  The delicate white tissue surrounding him further echoes the fragility of his condition and forlorn improbability of intervening help.