ART CITIES:N.York-Gary Simmons
Gary Simmons work draws from icons and stereotypes of the American popular culture and the politics of race on a global level. Simmons is known for his use of an eerie erasure effect, which he achieves by blurring his drawings with his hands. Recalling the look of chalk on blackboards, the effect reinforces the mysterious quality of Simmons’ imagery while suggesting movement, the fleetingness of time, the pliability of history and the inevitable fading of both cultural and personal memory
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Simon Lee Gallery Archive
In his new exhibition “Post No Bills”, Gary Simmons continues to excavate politics, music, race and class within American and British culture. In an interview with Okwui Enwezor, Simmons said that his aim is to “Integrate the theoretical with the beautiful to create stunning objects”. Drawing on the DIY aesthetic of punk, dub and early hip hop music and the tradition of street fly-posting to promote gigs and events, Simmons’ rainbow saturated coloured paintings reveal traces of the long forgotten individual and collective creative voices that have informed and shaped contemporary culture. An important analogue communication device in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, fly-posters, along with fanzines and mix-tapes, contributed to creating local scenes and regional cultures. Battles and protests were played out in poster form, plastered in the night one on top of another, building a visual diary of a place and its people. Eventually ripped down or weather beaten, these hand-crafted, type-set promotional images, invitations and declarations became outdoor wallpaper, passed largely unnoticed each day. Echoing the posters’ lifecycle and the zeal and desire inherent in their original design and intention, Simmons builds up layer after layer of sections of found posters in his paintings; sourcing, cropping, re-colouring, re-printing, tearing and juxtaposing incongruous events and chronologies to invoke a familiar, dynamic language through a series of fragmented memories. These paintings, with their partially erased images, ghostly texts and disconnected symbols, remind us that we are constructed by personal experiences, fantasies, perceptions and external events. Simmons’ paintings resist nostalgia yet reflect the process of history-making and our need to deconstruct, rework, reframe and to build upon what has been before. Whilst referencing marketing techniques that deftly seduce the viewer, Simmons renders any didactic message redundant, calling into question the speed and proliferation of mass marketing in a digital age and the commoditisation of youth cultures. Mounted onto plywood surfaces, Simmons’ paintings reference hoardings and construction sites, reminding us of the temporality of culture, its questionable accessibility and recalling the objecthood and impact of these aesthetic interventions in the public realm. A large 4m x 4m unique wall work in this series frames two new speaker sculptures, made from reclaimed wood found from buildings affected by hurricane Katrina, in The Treme area of New Orleans. Simmons was inspired by The Black Ark, the recording studio of reggae and dub producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, built in 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica. Utilising the same DIY aesthetic and perched atop makeshift table-top plinths each of the sculptures stands alert, a unique character yet collectively ready for action, to command, move or sway a group, a community or to engage in a dialogue with one enthusiastic individual.
Info: Simon Lee Gallery, 12 Berkeley Street, London, Duration: 15/1-20/2/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.simonleegallery.com
