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Email PageDelusions of Grandeur
March 4, 2006- April 1, 2006
Reception: March 4, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Johnston Foster
Rare
521 W 26th StIn his second solo show at RARE, Johnston Foster presents Delusions of Grandeur, a deceptively whimsical exploration of the dark nature of contemporary Man’s lust for ever-expanding hegemony and control. Soon after completing his MFA thesis show at Hunter College in 2005, in which his sculpture incorporated materials he accumulated since his move to New York in 2001, Foster purged his studio, packed his belongings, and relocated to rural New Brunswick, Canada. Using a garage as his studio, Foster literally started from scratch as he collected the detritus from his new environment by following trash trucks and digging through dumpsters. He collected what his immediate surroundings freely yielded and allowed these materials to inform the content of his work, creating a twisted commentary on America’s obsessive pursuit of wealth, power, and influence.
Foster is fascinated by golf’s history, beauty, and the accessories of its lifestyle but sees the dichotomy between the beauty of the game and its evolution, which closely mirrors Man’s own evolution toward the destructive tendencies of racism, exclusionism, and environmentally destructive behavior. You Can’t Always Get What You Want (2005) depicts a golf bag over-stuffed with clubs covered in warmers that resemble a donkey and an elephant. A black eagle swoops in to attack its prey above the handle of a scythe whose blade pierces the bottom of the bag. Strong political imagery has been utilized to satirize the glut in which the current two-party system finds itself – both indulgent and ineffective as they vie for supremacy while the proletariat sickle cuts through the bourgeoisie’s self-indulgent paunch.
Universal Soldier (2005) continues the metaphor of golf, with its propensity toward acquisitive impulses, by questioning the nature of the reward system on which the entire pursuit is based. A dug up golf hole without a course sheds light on the lack of intrinsic value of the game and demonstrates the expendability of the reward. Fleshing out his commentary on excessive greed, Foster presents Delusions of Grandeur (2006), which features a fantastic flying golf cart drawn by Santa’s appropriated reindeer racing to the eighteenth hole. Here the artist gives us a glimpse of what those who have reached the pinnacle of “the game” are capable of gifting themselves at the expense of the common good. These works demonstrate the ridiculousness of Enron-like behavior that obliterates everything in the path to self-gratification.
Paying homage to the pre-classical sculpture of Rome’s founding myth, Foster has crafted his own she-wolf in Mama’s Boys (2005). Underneath her silver foam-covered body, two infants built from wood and layered in dripping wood glue suckle at their protector’s bright pink teats. Here the artist deftly attacks the sanctity of imperialist dogma by subverting viewers’ perceptions with cartoon-like imagery.
Foster has participated in three museum shows. In addition to exhibitions at PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, New York and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, he was given his first one-person exhibition in 2005 at Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Utah. He also was an artist-in-residence at Castle Trebesice in the Czech Republic in 2004, which was followed in 2005 by a solo exhibition at Futura Gallery in Prague. Foster received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001, and his MFA from Hunter four years later.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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Rare was last updated: 2008-10-15
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