Pleasure Principle

2 pieces I recently completed…

Continuation

“.270 Winchester with Scope”

Gunpowder, graphite, and cut paper.
22″x15″

This was a Demonstration piece I did for an interview. (The Dallas Hispanic MTV  thingy airing on the 22nd of Aug, 2010.)

After coming home I cut the pattern shapes from the paper. I have done similar things before, but it seems that this cutting and patterning continues to become an integral step in several of my pieces.

And on to the next piece…

Upcoming: “Trajectory” in San Antonio, TX

“Trajectory”
Ryder Richards: solo exhibition

Friday, July 2- 30, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: First Friday, July 2, 2010, 6-9 pm

I was offered a chance to exhibit at the Cactus Bra Space; an independently owned and artist run gallery in San Antonio, TX. The space is roughly 14′ x 16′, which is great for creating a really focused exhibition or installation. (I don’t know if I am capable of that focus, but I will try.)

I would love to do an installation… Right now I am thinking of building a curving wall into the space and making a drawing that moves through the space. More updates to come as I begin construction.

5×7 drawings

Medici Circle holds annual charity events to create scholarship opportunities for Texas Tech School of Art. The 5×7 format includes a dinner and the chance to buy as many 5″x7″ art pieces as one can get their hands on. Each art piece costs $75. I contributed 3 pieces this year, but have continued to utilize the format as a way to test out variations on theme and materials.

These pieces are made with a combination of materials including one or more of the following: graphite, pigment, and/or gunpowder on 5″x7″ stonehinge paper.

Americas 2010: Paperworks

Bombs (a.k.a. for all the love in the world)_30x22x8_gunpowder, graphite on paper on wood structure

Americas 2010: Paperworks

Juror : Heidi Goldberg

Northwest Art Center,
Hartnett Hall Gallery,
Minot State University, Minot, ND
January 11 – February 24, 2010

“Congratulations! We are pleased to notify you that your work, ‘Bombs,’ has been accepted for inclusion in the Northwest Art Center’s Americas 2010: Paperworks exhibition and has been honored with a Merit Award.”

Masculinity (?)

If it was all a joke it would be forgivable…

I had the idea for these drawings 4 months ago and finally decided to finish them. The impetus came from an art lecture with my class where they were overly concerned with the piece ‘buckshot‘ that I made in Germany this summer.  I described these as investigations of Cultures of Honor* and discussed the manifestation of masculinity in a phallo-centric culture.

I don’t think they bought it.

*A Culture of Honor is usually found in rural areas where honor is paramount to survival, therefore violence is swift and necessary. See Richard Nesbet and Dov Cohen’s book “Culture of Honor”

Details

Details… a bit of a contradictory misnomer.
Here are 3 drawings I have made since moving to Dallas.

They are based on several influences. I am interested in the formal concerns that create the composition. I find it interesting to play off of ‘minimalism’ or ‘pure composition studies’ which often are blocks of color and/or linework that explore perception and space. By  having the subject (guns) create the structural composition the works can have a more complex dialogue. This allows for reading the pieces through a modernist lens while dually engaging the history of realism and photography in art.

The underlying thought is that the structure of the guns…
1) becomes less recognizable the closer you are to the weapon, which acts as a commentary on familiarity with violence. It also creates an abstract form that allows for multiple interpretations, hence #2…
2) the shapes take on an architectural feel when you crop them and lose the sense of scale by removing the background. This  echoes the idea in anthropology that a culture’s architecture reveals what they value.

 

Duchamp’s Pendulum: Restraint Is My Friend: 698 Miles

"Duchamp's Pendulum: Restraint Is My Friend: 698 miles" 2009, graphite, acrylic, cable, light, wood, 698 miles from Dallas to Austin to Marfa, 58"x48"x12"

This piece was developed after several conversations about the how my art is affected by the traveling across the Southwest with the RJP Nomadic Gallery. The premise is based on the idea that all art is only the remnants of an artist’s action. We only see the marks of the process and can only guess as to what actions took place and in what order. In the last 60 years there have been several artists experiment with action based art works.

The pendulum concept came from reading a Umberto Ecco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum.” The first chapter discusses the fixed point from all action draws it’s patterns and behaviors. The fixed point, naturally, becomes sacred and the pattern of motion becomes a reflection of the larger forces of the cosmos.

I set up restraints (side walls) on the piece so that it would be limited in range. This development came from a quote attributed to Marcel Duchamp: “Creativity is born of restraint.” I could not philosophically agree that the piece should be free to swing anywhere as it does not seem to reflect human nature, destiny, or the principles of travel in the nomadic gallery.

Germany_Summer Residency_2009

I have been in Germany for 4 weeks.
In this time I have traveled around to a few villages and festivals and spent some time making art. I have also visited a few museums and cathedrals as all good tourists must do.

I am apart of a group show here in Tangermunde later this summer. (It is located in an old church that is now a museum.) I also have slated an exhibition for a Museum in Salzwedel in 2011. The Salzwedel Monkskirche Museum is another church with an intricate hanging system of wires. (see below)

Salzwedel Monkskirche Museum

The piece seen below was developed in Germany to comment on the serious issue of finding masculinity through tools of violence. I find the humor in the piece creates an easy entry point from which to discuss of the subject. The concept came about when the residency director loaned me his grandfather’s old shotgun, now a non-functional relic.
I asked friends on Facebook to help me title the piece, hence the working title : “Point and Shoot/ Two Pump Chump/ Perception Meets Reality {up and down}/ Get Glad and Sad in the Same Pants”

Point and Shoot / Two Pump Chump / Get glad and sad in the same pants

Salzwedel Monkskirche Museum

Point and Shoot / Two Pump Chump / Get glad and sad in the same pants/ Perception meets Reality

Buckshot. 30x44_graphte and gold paint on paper

The Ram: 30x44_graphite and gold paint on paper

Immpossibility of Defeat/ Reversal of Fortune: Shark 1

Impossibility of Defeat // Reversal of Fortune: Shark 2

Impossibility of Defeat / Reversal of Fortune: A ram vs. Abram

Immpossibility of Defeat / Reversal of Fortune: Birds

Immpossibility of Defeat : Bucks

gottenforshtig: St. Assault

Gottenforshtig: St. 45

Gottenfurshtig_St. A-Bomb

Birds

Reversal-blast

Reversal of Fortune: Indian/ Birds of a Feather

Bathroom grafiti-2

Grafiti in bathroom-1

Tattooed Venus

The largest pieces are about 60″ x 88″ wide. They are all made with some graphite and some lamp black pigment on paper. the saints are about 22″x15″ with some acrylic red and gold paint.

It took me 2 days to track down some wood. It comes in huge ruff planks that need a lot of attention. I cleaned up the wood to make a structure for “Point and Shoot/Two Pump Chump/ Perception {up and down}”.
(The difficulty in cleaning these up is really only in the time spent and in the quality of tools one has access to.)

Power

TowerMan 1- Gunpowder on paper, wood structure- 30"x22"

These pieces are created by igniting gunpowder. The Tower Men reference Idealism and a level of sacrifice to achieve the highest possible incarnation of self. The Structures are reminiscent of the oil-derricks and windmills in the Texas/New Mexico areas.
The poignant nature of it for me, in a narrative fashion, is the character’s striving embodied as a physical manifestation or mutilation. The concept also references what I have found to be a Southern Mid-West mentality. This mentality syncs with many of my experiences in Texas and New Mexico: physical action is the primary accomplishment of a man. It is how is ‘measured’ or judged.

Dueling - gunpowder on paper, wood structures, 30"x48"

The guns and bombs are much more of an exploration of the toxic nature of the material as well as it’s power. The gunpowder destroys in order to create, which echoes a similar mentality of ideals formed by western expansion, taming of the west, and most militaristic processes used to ensure Peace. These pieces also reference Power and visible forms of that power. The guns, Colt 45’s, played a dominant part in the military and the shaping of the ‘Wild West’.

Bombs - pigment and gunpowder on paper, wood structure, 30"x22"