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.

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The best thing I ever saw in my life ever