What do we want from the stuff we use, and what do we feel when we use it? From dollar store soda, shampoo, IKEA furniture and hair rollers to flour, dirt and plastic food stuffs, Alex Da Corte’s materials are the commonplace detritus of the everyday, and deliberately so. In his searingly colourful videos, paintings, installations or sculptures, the Philadelphia-based artist finds poetry in consumer culture and theatricality in the suburban.
At a solo exhibition opening on 9 July in Los Angeles, Da Corte brings his 360-degree practice to the Hammer Museum, with a new, site-specific multimedia installation, incorporating a survey of recent video work. (Well, almost – it's being presented off-site, at LA's Art + Practice.) This is Da Corte’s second solo exhibition with a US museum this year; his solo at MASS MoCA – 'Free Roses', running until January 2017 – includes a dazzling, 100ft, carefully-constructed installation that speaks of the artist’s interest in sets, stages and surfaces. 'A Season in He’ll' (the title a reference to Arthur Rimbaud’s poem 'A Season in Hell', the inspiration behind a series of works) continues Da Corte’s investigations into the intersection of the visual with the psychological. With a language that is rooted in post-pop and post-internet, the Hammer Museum presentation is perceived as an investigation into the way we filter and apply images and their effect on our psyche. 'A Season in He’ll' distils Western dissatisfaction and bad taste into something that is still artificial, but has a chimerical charge.
'How can this be the better place to live? What is this Coke doing for us? What is this remake of Beauty and the Beast doing for us? What exquisite joy or pain will this peanut butter deliver to us? Who is responsible for change?' Da Corte asks. 'We are responsible for change. We are the sponges that do the dirty dishes. We absorb. We change. We grow. We start again.'
'A Season in He’ll' (the title a reference to Arthur Rimbaud’s poem 'A Season in Hell') continues Da Corte’s investigations into the intersection of the visual with the psychological. Pictured: Die Hexe, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, 2015
From dollar store soda, shampoo, IKEA furniture and hair rollers to flour, dirt and plastic food stuffs, Da Corte’s materials are the commonplace deitritus of the everyday, and deliberately so. Pictured: Die Hexe, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, 2015
In his searingly colourful videos, paintings, installations or sculptures, the Philadelphia-based artist finds poetry in consumer culture and theatricality in the suburban. Pictured: Die Hexe, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, 2015
'A Season in He’ll' distils Western dissatisfaction and bad taste into something that is still artificial, but has a chimerical charge. Pictured: Die Hexe, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, 2015
This is Da Corte’s second solo exhibition with a US museum this year; his solo at MASS MoCA – 'Free Roses', running until January 2017 – includes a dazzling installation that speaks of the artist’s interest in sets, stages and surfaces. Pictured: Free Roses, MASS MoCA, 2016–2017
Free Roses, MASS MoCA, 2016–2017
INFORMATION
’A Season in He’ll’ is on view until 17 September. For more information, visit the Hammer Museum website
Photography courtesy the artist
ADDRESS
4339 Leimert Boulevard
Los Angeles CA 90008
-
Seven designers rethinking wood at London Design FestivalAt this year’s London Design Festival, wood proves itself anything but static. We highlight seven designers shaping, colouring, and engineering it in surprising ways
-
Inside Kazakhstan’s brutalist Tselinny cinema – now a hub for contemporary cultureTselinny Center of Contemporary Culture, a modernist landmark redesigned for its new purpose by Asif Khan, gears up for its grand opening in Kazakhstan
-
Oliver Spencer’s orbiting installation offers a meditative shopping experience during London Design FestivalAt Oliver Spencer’s Shoreditch store, a sensory light installation by Studio Rhythmics offers a calming moment during LDF
-
Stephen Prina borrows from pop, classical and modern music: now MoMA pays tribute to his performance work‘Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise’ recalls the artist, musician, and composer’s performances, and is presented throughout MoMA. Prina tells us more
-
Curtains up, Kid Harpoon rethinks the sound of Broadway production ‘Art’He’s crafted hits with Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus; now songwriter and producer Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) tells us about composing the music for the new, all-star Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza’s play ‘Art’
-
Richard Prince recontextualises archival advertisements in TexasThe artist unites his ‘Posters’ – based on ads for everything from cat pictures to nudes – at Hetzler, Marfa
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekAnother week, another flurry of events, opening and excursions showcasing the best of culture and entertainment at home and abroad. Catch our editors at Scandi festivals, iconic jazz clubs, and running the length of Manhattan…
-
The best Ruth Asawa exhibition is actually on the streets of San FranciscoThe artist, now the subject of a major retrospective at SFMOMA, designed many public sculptures scattered across the Bay Area – you just have to know where to look
-
Orlando Museum of Art wants to showcase more Latin American and Hispanic artists. Do you fit the bill?The Florida gallery calls for for Hispanic and Latin American artists to submit their work for an ongoing exhibition
-
The spread of Butter: the Black-owned art fair where artists see all the profitsThe Indianapolis-based art fair is known for bringing Black art to the forefront. As it ventures out of state to make its Los Angeles debut, we speak with founders Mali and Alan Bacon to find out more
-
Steve Martin wants you to visit The Frick CollectionThe actor has appeared in a video promoting New York’s newly renovated art museum
