happy as an asteroid
october 21  november 21, 2010
vERNISSAGE
thursday oct 21, 2010 6pm - 9pm
ben merris /
The chemist Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin is responsible for the discovery of almost every psychedelic drug known to man. One of the greatest challenges he faced with regards to these discoveries was trying to record and name a seemingly infinite amount of possible chemical combinations that would illicit varying degrees of psychedelic response. It seems as if the work of Ben Merris could function as the visual representation of this conundrum. His work provides a dizzying array of exaggerated optical experiences. Like Shulgin’s discoveries Merris’ work induces a confusing sense of trying to keep track of it all. His Photoshop-like layers trick the viewer into moments of doubt, the oscillation between digital production and the human hand becomes bewildering while the “surfaces are ultimately imbued with a warped, mystic-cyborg élan vital; a certain humanism or a grasp at meaning that no machine can muster”. Somehow, Merris sooths the eye after shocking it out of complacent slumber through the construction of his coalescent paintings from abstract geometric forms, gradients, incomplete patterns and layers of intersecting information. So while Shulgin toiled away with slight variations of the same, Ben Merris too generates “paintings that cannibalize themselves in the quest for density, inter-dimensionality and meaning as layers of patterned and intuitive marks build on the surface”.
Merris speaks of maximizing the conductivity of his paintings, a sign of a kind of rigorous play at work. For Merris, the reduction to pure form that was the modus operandi of high modernism is turned on its head. Acknowledging the false pretence of “pure”, Merris begins his paintings with some essential elements only to apply oversaturated color, pattern and slippery dynamism of form, creating an utterly porous and symphonic relationship to art and music history where cave painting, hip hop, impressionism, ab ex, futurism, concrete poetry, minimalism and punk rock can (temporarily) unshackle themselves from their chronological and contextual hitching posts in order to dialogue, dance, and hunt for clues in harmony.
Ben Merris Psymultaneousely, 2010, acrylic on canvas 18" x 14" (45.72cm x 35.56cm)
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