LA><ART

LA><ART will debut a new body of sculptural works by LA artist Timo Fahler. In this first solo exhibition, a set of portioned telephone poles have been made over with the application of pale hues. Instead of smelling creosote we see color. After many coatings the original lumber is transformed and unmistakably recognizable. The bulk of each length still imposes its weight while serving as a stage for a hanging fragment that has been jettisoned or is trailing the mauve, yellow or pink pedestals. This body of work is also comprised from casting and manipulating found objects and combining them with relics and personal effects. The work speaks to notions of waste, recycling, use and reuse relative to familiar yet foreign cultures that create the larger context of Souther California. Fahler considers Central and South American cultures wherein walls are comprised of mud and plastic bottles, old bicycles are transformed into washing machines and knife sharpeners, and shards of broken glass find use as security devices atop privacy fences.

In all of this, Timo Fahler’s work offers up a new strain of realism, uprooted and coastal in disposition though it may be. Relevant comparisons include post-pop luminaries Arman, Bruce Conner and Jannis Kounellis as well as more recent gleaners Gedi Sibony and Rachel Harrison. Yet, forebears are rarely direct relatives. These and other artists who may seem influential in fact only share with Fahler a kinship for the everyday that guides all found art. Like them Fahler’s sculpture uses the fasteners, debris and lumber found in a woodshed or machine shop—such as two-by-fours, sawhorses various stanchions, poles and pylons, strewn rags and styrofoam—to create sculpture.

In short, like others before him, a sense for what out of all the junk in the world ought to be exported into the white cube via his studio can explain part of the attraction of Fahler’s work. A final aspect, which sets him closer to Nouveau Réalism, keenly unites objects so that they seem positively suspended. From the right vantage it is as though the parts that make a piece are attracted to each other. This resonance promotes their magnetism in each room, including our own place within the arrangements.

With support from an anonymous donor. Project Space 2 + 3 are made possible with the generous support of the Maurice Marciano Family Foundation and Brenda R. Potter.