Joel Ross
A Place Some People Call America
October 14 - November 12, 2005
opening Friday, October 14, 6-9pm
You all remember moniquemeloche's inaugural show in 2001 when Joel Ross
borrowed his mother's bedroom? Well, don't miss his first solo show in
4 years A Place Some People Call America at moniquemeloche gallery opening
next Friday, October 14th . The obsessive and often subversive nature
of this Texas-born artist continues to be revealed, but the current political
climate cannot be avoided. From a major wall installation "Replicas
of Flags I've Burned" to blinking light boxes of the US and Iraqi
flags, Ross navigates the rugged emotional and intellectual terrain of
a country caught between glory and shame. As usual, text plays an important
part in Ross' work and manifests itself in a series of black on black
drawings taken from ubiquitous bumper stickers like "United We Stand,"
"My SUV luvs Iraqi Oil" and "God Guns Glory." The
exhibition includes crisp photographs of random signs across the US landscape
that celebrate the fading past of Americana while conjuring images of
both hope and despair. And finally, we'll get a different view of the
motherland in a video installation produced this summer manipulating found
footage of women flashing their breasts at events like Mardi Gras to melancholy
and eerie effect.
"Everything I’m thinking about right now falls under an umbrella
of examining a fucked up place called America. Like so many other citizens,
I’ve been feeling a deep split in my emotions about our nation.
I find it hard to look at or think about anything without holding it very
self-consciously up to the light of this republic’s power and arrogance.
The bottom line is I’m spending a lot of time thinking about what
America is. I am simultaneously confused, disgusted, fascinated, weary,
sad and angry. On paper (certain pieces of paper) this country holds so
much promise, and I am still a strong believer in the fundamental principles
this nation was built on. I’m also proud of many hard won changes
that have occurred since those founding documents were written (suffrage,
civil rights, etc.). But clearly we are a most paradoxical nation, and
the work I’m planning right now involves an examination of this
paradox. I am particularly struck by the moral hypocrisy, which is visible
everywhere, and the effectiveness of systematic dis-information."
JOEL ROSS summer 2005
Ross has thankfully returned to our midst teaching at the University of
Illinois Urbana-Champaign after a few years in the desert. Born in Texas
in 1966, Ross received his BFA from Tufts University in Massachusetts
and his MFA from Cranbrook in Michigan. He has had solo exhibitions in
Chicago, New York, and Lund Sweden and currently has work from his "Measuring
Texas" series in the traveling exhibition "Going West"
organized by ArtHouse at the Jones Center in Austin Texas. He will make
a new project with Rare Gallery in New York in 2006
