Noah
Davis, Savage Wilds
(Many of you may remember that Noah is the son of Keven Davis, Seattle attorney who pased last December)
312 2nd Ave. S
Seattle, WA
(206) 903 6220
Savage Wilds
July 12 – August 24, 2012
opening reception
Thursday, July 12
6 – 8pm
New
Gallery Hours: Tues-Wed By Appointment, Thursday-Saturday 11:00AM to 5:00PM
James Harris
Gallery is pleased to present our second solo exhibition by Noah Davis. With
Savage Wilds, Davis considers the blurry line between reality and the
artificial within the artist’s process of fashioning an identity and a
corresponding body of work. The show takes its name from a 1988 play by author
Ishmael Reed in which he sought to expose the absurd nature of American racism,
especially as represented in mainstream television. Davis uses the phenomenon
of late 20th century American tabloid talk shows to look at the production and
spectacle of modern life, its relationship to the notion of artist as creator,
and the latent parallels between highbrow and lowbrow culture. Transposing the
televised world of Jerry Springer and Maury Povich from midday trash TV into
the gallery setting, he adds yet another layer to this dialogue, which
emphasizes the voyeuristic exchange between artist and audience, drawing
attention to correlations between staging, performance and the cult of
personality.
With the
rise of tabloid talk shows, America experienced a new and special type of
social voyeurism. Contentious situations that normally would have been reserved
for more intimate settings, such as confessions of infidelity, were suddenly
broadcast openly into the living rooms of an estranged audience. These daytime
talk shows offered a window into a world that was both familiar (real) and
bizarre (dramatized), complete with an authoritative host at the helm. Acutely
aware of the cultural and sociological significance of these wildly popular
performances, Davis considers the art establishment within this context. The
artist’s renderings of video stills from tapings of The Jerry Springer Show and
Maury Povich delineate an art/life cross-over, the spectacular shows standing
in for Davis’ own similarly constructed environment, complete with a stage,
celebrity branding and spotlighting.
The action
depicted in these works is often violent and humorous, serving to stress the
absurd characteristics of the spectacle. You Are is beautifully composed,
drenched in red and dotted with glaring spotlights above the stage. It is also
confrontational, with swinging limbs and deliberate gaze reversals, such as the
text “You” looking back at the viewer in the foreground of the screen. Davis’
paintings are engaging, calculated and witty, oscillating between a display of
erudite painterly skill and the exposure of its irrelevance.
