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The Ghost and the WhalePost an Event »

Cain Schulte Gallery

May 20 - July 3, 2011

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251 Post Street 2nd floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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The Ghost and the Whale
Reception May 20, 5:30-7:30 pm. The Ghost and the Whale is an art show by two artists whose practice is mainly paper-based, and centered on manipulation, transcriptions of texts, and the close examination of these texts' meaning and implications. Fox and Quinn's investigations share a very close affinity in their concerns with language and the transferal of information, as well as of the compulsion of visualizing the ephemeral and the liminal, in mementos to loss and concrete absence. Is something not present still real? Do intangible things still exist? For his first exhibition at the gallery, Mark Fox will present an installation of two- and three-dimensional works that incorporate the artist's personal vocabulary of images and text in an inquiry on the material quality of absence, and on the paradox of religious dogmas. Fox's preoccupation with material belongings is evident in works like "Sorry", an arch-shaped visual compilation of small, brightly colored, cut-paper objects and words, and in "Specter", a large-format cut-paper piece, which speak of the ephemera of one's life. The underlying ontology in Fox's work also is apparent in his text- based pieces, which question the validity of religious dogmas. In these works, quotes from religious texts, transcribed by Fox's in his own handwriting, are cut from paper and assembled in an attempt to personally re-interpret them and turn their abstract tenets into more real propositions. Alongside Fox, Justin Quinn, for his fifth show with the gallery, will present a new selection of his distinctive transcription of Herman Melville's Moby Dick into the letter E. Analogous to Fox's personal investigation of religious texts, Quinn transforms Melville's writings into labyrinthine and spiraling compositions that call to mind Captain Ahab's monomaniacal quest for the mythical, inapprehensible White Whale. Using specific chapters as sources, Quinn produces exquisite graphite and silver point drawings, akin to phantasmagoric maps, that provide a visual reckoning into his creative pursuit. By methodically re-writing Moby Dick, a story rich in theology, philosophy, and psychosis, Quinn construes a structural map for his textual work, and parallels the allegorical search to a symbol for those elements of life that are ineffable. Combined, the works of these two artists seek to explore the possibility of conjuring reality out of their pencil marks, and to extract palpable meaning from conceived truths.