Art in novels: pinpointed one of Isaac Brest’s most enigmatic sources
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- Isaac Brest, Thank You In Advance, exhibition view, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
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- Isaac Brest, The Rise of Fake Buddhism, 2014, Gyproc, joint compound, mesh tape, paint and wood. Courtesy Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels.
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- Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato. Under construction.
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- Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato.
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- Penthouse at “De Rotterdam”, OMA architects, Rotterdam.
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- Penthouse at “De Rotterdam”, OMA architects, Rotterdam.
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- Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato.
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- Isaac Brest, Chinatown Lumber Co., 2013. Sheetrock, screws and joint compound in artist frame, 72 x 48 inches.
We had to visit two buildings under construction before understanding, but finally we have pinpointed the fragment of reality where the most enigmatic two dimensional works by Isaac Brest are “re-enacting”. That would not be a great discovery if advised by the artist, or if you were used to Sheetrock o drywalls. But this is not our case, that is why we shall call it a discovery.
Whoever is familiar with the Still House Group, of which Isaac Brest is one of the founders, knows that the basis of their art practice is a certain appropriation of “details” of the world that we, as humans beings, see with our own eyes. This “detail”, being an email message, or a coin (Nick Darmstaedter), a part of a matchbox (Alex Perweiler), or a bowling ball that breaks a wall (Dylan Lynch), is always turned into something else. What exactly? Memory is one of the possible answers.
Right then I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my money. I wanted to reconstruct that space and enter it so that I could feel real again. I wanted to; I had to; I would. Nothing else mattered. I stood there starting at the crack. It all came down to that: the way it ran down the wall, the texture of the plaster all around it, the patches of colour to its right. That’s what had sparked the whole thing off. I had to get it down somehow – exactly, how it forked and jagged.
Exactly like the main character of “The reminder” by Tom McCarthy, the beholder observes something that he knows is already somewhere in his mind… thus, what a sophisticated pleasure when he manages to remember where this memory comes from.
December 22, 2016
