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Jay Heikes
Kill Yr Idols
December 13 - February 8, 2003
Vedanta Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition
of Minneapolis based artist Jay Heikes.
Jay Heikes' exhibition titled Kill Yr Idols continues the
artist's exploration within the realm of his own pop culture
anthropology. His attraction to rock music, early MTV and
cult cinema meet formalism as they act as catalysts in his
sculptures, drawings and videos. These references serve as
starting points, where Heikes makes connections from these
popular idols and spins them into his own narrative that gradually
becomes abstract and personal.
Kill Yr Idols drifts from drawing to sculpture to video,
resulting in an installation illustrating a natural progression
of ideas and subject matter. One striking video is a remake
of the Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation album cover where the
original cover image is a painting from Gerhard Richter's
candle series. This subtle adaptation becomes a loaded tribute
between pop culture and "high" art, while closing the minuscule
gap that actually exists between these two worlds. Another
series of work in the exhibition consists of drawings Heikes
has been creating for the past eight months that will eventually
act as film stills in an animation. The drawings are based
on figures from our popular history such as Sharon Tate, Val
Kilmer as Jim Morrison and Laura Palmer from David Lynch's
"Twin Peaks - Fire Walk with Me", who have in one way or another,
died for us. Though the references Heikes uses are often buried
and obscure, their mystery draws an even more complex relationship
to the way things affect one another unknowingly and silently.
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Jay Heikes (b. 1975, Princeton, New Jersey) lives and works
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has exhibited at Midway Contemporary
Art, St.Paul; in "Watery, Domestic" at The Renaissance Society,
Chicago; "Video Topiques: Music/Video" at the Musee d'Art
Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg France; and will be exhibiting
this March at Artists Space in NY. His work is in the collections
of the Walker Art Center and the Altoids Curiously Strong
Collection.
Image:
Kill Yr Idols, part II (film still), 2002
6" x 8"
Ink, tempera and bleach on paper
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