Jeff Bailey Gallery is pleased to present Dylan Languell: Great Value, an exhibition of sculpture.
Automobile tires, painted white and topped with Corian, serve as pedestals for sculptures in the form of kachina dolls. The multi colored textures of each sculpture feature fragments of shrunken brand names, logos and food descriptions: Fritos, Sun Chips, Lays, Veggie Harvest, white cheddar, original potato chips, BBQ Fries, etc. The text is printed on aluminum laminated with polypropylene, known commonly as bags of chips.
Using a microwave oven, Languell shrank hundreds of chip bags. Non-biodegradable, the bags find new life as the “bodies” of the kachina dolls.
Kachinas have a history dating to the mid 19th century or earlier. Around 1850, Hopi Indians carved wooden figures to make dolls that were used to instruct young women about deified ancestral spirits and their influence over the natural environment. During the early part of the 20th Century, kachinas became a commodification of Native American culture and were incorporated into Western artistic practices.
The title of the exhibition, Great Value, brings to mind new products, low prices, and issues of mass consumption. The phrase brims with promise, yet poses the potential of overconsumption and waste.
Dylan Languell (b. 1985) received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. He lives and works in Hudson, New York.
Jeff Bailey Gallery is located at 127 Warren Street, Hudson, New York, 12534. Gallery hours are Friday – Sunday, from 12-6 and by appointment. For further information or images, please contact the gallery at info@baileygallery.com or 518.828.6680.
Image: Sunface, 2016, aluminum laminated with polypropylene, 10.25' x 7" x 5"
Crow Mother, 2016, aluminum laminated with polypropylene, 9.5' x 5" x 3"
Photograph by Evan Whale