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Johansson Projects

January 30 - March 21, 2010

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2300 Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA 94612
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Article X Dave Trautrimas, Micro Re-Instigator
Observe Article X, a peculiar specimen, removed from its natural habitat, on the verge of death or banality and given a new purpose by unknown forces. Photographer David Trautrimas dismantles and sculpts rusted household refugees—coffee pots, refrigerators, electric razors, oil cans and waffle irons—which are then digitally re-imagined as top-secret outposts. The Skunkwork structures are situated in Cold War landscapes, channeling the tangled relationships between militarism and consumerism. His experiments hypothesize the fictional origins of appliances and common household goods that defined the zeitgeist of the era. Kristina Lewis frees utilitarian objects from their allegiance to human agendas and gives the materials of our disregarded possessions space to evolve. Emancipated zippers, stilettos, and light switches (complete with their wiring), become indescribable relics that could be machine or animal. Reassembled high heels flaunt their insides: the grosthetics of metal bones, ragged flesh and skinned horns suggest the underlying torture of tottering on heels. Though we recognize the residuals of what was, her creations test the human urge to classify, ridding the shoes of their "shoeness," as what we would normally recognize evaporates into the idiosyncrasies of its parts.