DEADALIVE : Jeff Bechtel
October 14, 2005 — November 13, 2005
The Monstrum is etymologically "that which reveals," "that which warns."
Brooklyn Fire Proof is pleased to present DEADALIVE, Jeff Bechtel’s first solo exhibition in which he has adopted the role of Dr. Frankenstein. Understanding culture as a multitude of fragments, Jeff Bechtel has presented some of these fragments in collections of an unassimilated hybrid, a monster. The monstrous body is a cultural construct and projection: something to be read. It signifies something other than itself, gives reason to the unexplained, signals warning, and reflects our inner fears and desires. Always it comes with a strain of dark comedy. John Ruskin said: "The grotesque is, in almost all cases, composed of two elements, one ludicrous, the other fearful."
In DEADALIVE, Bechtel introduces zombie glyphs in portrait-like settings of the glamorous affluent. The familiarity and pictorial seduction of this platform provides a pleasing confrontation with the grotesque, creating a perplexing situation of attraction and revulsion. The reaction and its meaning is imparted on the viewer.
In the project room is SLIP DOWN EASY, new collages by Sam Martineau, a display of the artist’s continuous search for ‘having two things happen at once.’ These new works broach formalism, daily experience and painterly abstraction, with such diverse counterpoints occurring within each piece. Through the use of a page of a magazine, encrusted gesso, newsprint, Ben Day dots or plastic bags, these choices make each work rich and unique in their juxtapositions. The pleasure of viewing these pictures is to participate in Martineau’s subtle color decisions and characteristic draftsmanship, a hybrid blend of advertising, construction and automatic writing.