~JOE BRADLEY .. NORTH WEST ?
JOE BRADLEY .. the artworld’s answer to KIM & KANYE’s baby name ?
I think it’s a great name. and no, you can’t be all serious – all the time.
esp if you want to understand contemporary art – you have to consider contemporary culture.
art 101.
JOE BRADLEY, ‘Untitled’, 2013.
120-1/4 x 123 in. framed.
currently on view in:
JOE BRADLEY – ‘LOTUS BEATERS’, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, until JUNE 29, 2013.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
it’s funny how sometimes the most simple, and most minimal ‘enterprise’ – is the most provocative, and therefore: profound.
and, as is usually the case with art – right on the – proverbial .. dot.
case in point. ‘untitled’ above, the only untitled painting in this show.
well, maybe Joe felt the title hadn’t revealed itself yet ?
well, how about . . ‘North West’ ?
there’s so much one could project upon this simple .. one color, green on white; one form, flower-like .. large canvas.
apart from the ‘a-cute’ cultural note .. little baby Kimye receives a name !! and so, poetic.
first of course is the quilt/grid orientation, and the essential/eternal 4 points – north, south, east and, west. d-i-r-e-c-t-i-o-n.
solar orientation. the 24 hrs of the day. the way we chart .. the round ‘ball’ we live on.
what’s really going on here.
is this painting .. a ‘color’ chart with regard to show’s BIG QUESTION: Lotus Beater v.s Eater ?
is it all, that is: life .. all blank, without that touch of the ‘green’ divine ?
the green divine of floa and fauna. of man’s spirit, and mind. body and soul.
that ONE quarter of flower burst.
is WILD.
is it – the key to: Beauty, Creation .. life itself. inspiration.
is it ok, and, in fact NECESSARY . . to be ecstatic, and to experience altered consciousness – to wake up the north west – region – in an otherwise white, unwrit, mundane, banal, well: muggle-like complacency ?
is a little magic .. in order ?
is Lotus eating, ok in moderation, or does the need for Lotus Beating .. and the constant tension and war that ensues, .. yin yang, play a part in our world’s dynamic and cycles.
in life and our understanding of it and .. therefore: creativity, too ?
is this how .. a painting begins ?
is that painterly north west sector – the birth of the universe, the big bang. not just the setting of the sun.
is this how .. an abstract ‘platform’ begins to take on a wordless .. voice ?
is this how we face a painting – like a mirror.
do we need absence, as in the other 3 ’empty’ quarters to know, to realize .. the beginning of form and color and expression ?
do we need contrast of form vs empty – to know and realize the diff between ‘engaged’ and beckoning vs nothingness. angst in a nutshell ?
is this a poem to love ? to know life, is the beginning / is this an ode .. to “bio”-ness.
is creation, more easy to discern, in the field of ’empty’ ?
I offer these thoughts to you . . . on a summer’s hazy afternoon.
LOTUS EATER .. of the mind.
LOTUS BEATER of the run-away . . im-pulse.
P.S.
they are going to call her NORI for short. Nori means ‘believe’ .. in Japanese.
well it could be worse, Knori ?!!
Knorth, haha. as in ya, silent k – know !!
all good. (in the universe.)
continues . . .