FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Absolut-L.A. International exhibition--
Eric Raymond, "Lanternes"
Long-Bin Chen, sculpture
July 18 - August 18, 2001
Reception for the Artist: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 from 5 to 8pm
Robert Berman Gallery, D-5 Projects
Bergamot Station Art Center
2525 Michigan Avenue, D-5, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: (310) 315-9506, Fax: (310) 315-9508
E-mail: berman@artnet.net
Web site: robertbermangallery.com
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm
This summer the Absolut-L.A. International brings a vast array of the world’s best contemporary artwork to Los Angeles. In it’s fifth term, the Absolut-L.A. International has developed a unique format whereby some 65 of L.A.’s best contemporary galleries and art institutions offer their gallery spaces and exhibition venues to over 200 international artists from 30 countries for a four-week exhibition, July 18 through August 18, 2001.
In conjunction with the Absolut-L.A. International, the Robert Berman Gallery is pleased to present two artists, Long-Bin Chen of Taiwan and Eric Raymond of Canada. Through different approaches, each of these artists grapple with issues that are key to our time: communication/language and technology and how we relate to these and other concerns in our uber-modern society.
Interestingly, Eric Raymond utilizes high technology as well as beautifully formal sculpture to consider similar themes of communication. In his series “Lanternes” Raymond uses photo/videographic works that are constructed in light boxes made to look like wooden furniture. Through the work Raymond demonstrates his fondness for juxtaposing sound, language and different types of imagery with quotidian objects in order to disrupt the “symbolic relationship” between these items. In these media pieces the artist addresses the way we live within and relate to the world and consequently how we produce meaning and communication through the various objects of our everyday life.
Long-Bin Chen, a native of Taipei, Taiwan, uses a buzz saw to carve figurative sculptures out of stacks of books, paper and phonebooks. His objects range from simplistic heads, hands and feet to more involved works such as full size standing figures and enormous walk-in head installations. The papers in these pieces are often unglued; this invites the viewer to fan the books so that the text of the pages is revealed. Imbedded in his work is evidence of the rich Chinese tradition of written language and history; throughout the past, the written word has been used to convey knowledge from generation to generation. To the artist, books are “becoming artifacts of a dying literate culture” due to the electronic age. These works, in turn, are a protest against disposable culture while at the same time a testament to the artist’s own cultural traditions.
This exhibition will run from July 18 through August 18. Please join us for a reception for the artists on Wednesday, July 18 from 5 to 8pm that will kick off the 2001 ABSOLUT-L.A. INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL ART INVITATIONAL.
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