Saturday, November 05, 2011

Egg Art Devastates and Comforts

Special for the Owner's Manual
by Portialista Romverolio

O'Brien, Erin. Egg Art. 2011.

Deceptively simple in title, newcomer Erin O'Brien's Egg Art debuted this weekend to an exclusive crowd at efFLUent gALAveria on the city's near upper west side.

Utilitarian in its approach but devastating in delivery, O'Brien at once corrupts and deconstructs the very coexistence of nascence (as in: ovum) and reality (as in: it is what it is) with an exacting eye for cohesion without abandoning minimalism. Eschewing the stability of linear expression, Egg Art comes to fruition within its own texture, at once violating the viewer and comforting her.

Simply stated, O'Brien convolutes convolution.

Egg Art, detail.
Conventional spatial relationships normally enable viewers. Not so with Egg Art, wherein the edge of dimension diminishes in perpetuity: here there are no lines. Definition evaporates before us. Yet we are invited--compelled even--to tumble ineluctably forward, excusing not only O'Brien, but also ourselves as we fall into in the realm of post-modern neo-deconstructionalism.

"The yolk broke," said a charmingly self-deprecating O'Brien. The room erupted in delighted chortles at her quip.

In one instant, Egg Art demands surrender with simplicity through complexity. Behold ironic plenum, empty capacity, unanswered exactitude and pattering ends.

Egg Art is O'Brien's first public offering. Savvy art lovers can only hope it won't be her last.

* * *

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

The entire history of the concept of structure, before the rupture of which we are speaking, must be thought of as a series of substitutions of centre for centre, as a linked chain of determinations of the centre. Successively, and in a regulated fashion, the centre receives different forms or names. It could be shown that all the names related to fundamentals, to principles, or to the centre have always designated an invariable presence – transcendentality, consciousness, God, man, and so forth. O'Briens "Egg Art" is the best representation of this presence essence to date.

Consume it.

RJ
(With apologies to Jacques Derrida)

Anonymous said...

You didn't say anything about juxtaposition.





joanne m.

glittermom said...

and what composes the pattern of meat?

Erin O'Brien said...

RJ: yes.

Jo: With juxtaposed all right.

GM: You mean the crushing porcine implication of course.

Anonymous said...

I WANT MY HASSENFEFFAH!!!
B. Bunny

wv: platirte...plate art?

philbilly said...

One is left to speculate as to whether this embryonic transcendence of post-modern epicuria denotes a liberation of the hunter-gatherer obsessive redux or is the digested art in fact the end game.

Translation: I have a trust fund, the drinks are free and physical labor hurts.

EOB, I usta pursue art chicks at openings, you have nailed the inane patois of the uber-sophisticate poseurs, +1

Anonymous said...

I am shell-shocked from all the spam I'm seeing...my computer is toast...
MR

DogsDontPurr said...

The beauty of this piece is that it is meant to be consumed, digested...like a dance or a song, ballet or theatre. It is ethereal. It is a performance piece. The art is in the sense memory.

The companion piece to this artwork is of course: Frying Pan. Again, a performance piece in an of itself...yet lends itself to a more concrete interpretation.

And I cannot begin to tell you how much the art community is a flutter with the rumor of Erin's upcoming new work: Plate.

We wait with baited breath....

(grazing) Goat said...

Egg Art will no longer be available for viewing due to an unfortunate encounter with another exhibit: Fork

Erin O'Brien said...

Phil: No one loves art more than me and god knows I tangle in the art world all the time. It ain't hard to separate the phonies from the realies. The realies are at work, doing what they love. The phonies are just dumbasses. Sometimes the realies have to play games with the phonies because the phonies have the money--just like everyone in every job.

MR: WAAH! One of the few things the Goat will not touch is Spam. That's smoked Canadian bacon from The Sausage Shoppe.

DDP: You are SO going to dig "Frying Pan!"

Readership: the Goat has graciously declined to reveal the impetus of this post: that he has long been answering to the braying call of "Egg art's ready. Come on and strap on the feed bag!" for a long long long time.

Erin O'Brien said...

It's been going on for so long that I can't even remember when I first (ahem) explained to him the obvious artistic elevation of my meticulous preparation method.

Bill said...

Eggsactly!

DogsDontPurr said...

Erin, Erin, Erin, my dear.

Fork is but a metaphor. A distillation of Feed Bag, if you will. Fork explores the juxtaposition of Bourgeois attitudes in context with utilitarian ideals versus the excesses of high society. It is social commentary. Positively brilliant!

Erin O'Brien said...

Bill: Egghead!

DDP: What the fork are you talking about?

DogsDontPurr said...

The question is the answer.

Jack Cluth said...

Brilliant in its execution. Elegant in its simplicity. Stunning in its import. Truly a ground-breaking moment in the evolution of the medium. ;-)

Nin Andrews said...

Brilliant. I think we need a round 2, tho it will be hard to outdo the egg art . . .

Mrs. C said...

Wait...is this piece a tribute to Hedwig's Angry Inch, or do I just see penis in EVERY abstract work?

Erin O'Brien said...

Jack and Nin: Thank heavens we elite understand each other. As for a round 2, I could explore the concept of hard boiled!

Mrs. C: I love that you referenced that movie. Now I want to blow the day watching it again.

Anonymous said...

Erin-
Are prints of 'Egg art' available in small format? I'd like a copy for my photo albumen.
MR