Download pdf - David Brody

PRESS RELEASE
Opening Reception |Friday, May 16th. 7–10pm
Exhibition Dates | May 16 through July 6, 2014
Boiler Hours |
Noon to 6pm, Thursday – Sunday, and by appointment
Location |
The Boiler 191 North 14th Street, Brooklyn, NY
(between Berry St. + Wythe Ave.)
Directions |
Take the L train to Bedford Ave. Walk 1 block west to Berry St.
Walk north to N. 14th St., turn left. The gallery will be on the right.
DAVID BRODY
8 Ecstasies
Including collaborations with Zig Gron and Nick Flynn
Pierogi is pleased to present a multi-media exhibition by David
Brody, “8 Ecstasies,” at The Boiler. The installation will be a
setting for the projection of a new 11-minute, high definition,
computer-animated film of the same name, with a sound score
by Zig Gron. Although completely digital, “8 Ecstasies” derives
from drawing. In 2007 Brody began modeling, in a 3-D
animation environment, a geometric figure first elaborated in
studies on isometric graph paper. He then set the interlocking,
morphable array in motion according to rhythmic breathing,
using a one-minute sound score collaged from internet
8 Ecstasies (Digital Animation Still), 11 Minutes, Edition of 15
pornography. In 2012 he sent the animation and sound source
to Gron in Los Angeles and “…asked for a set of variations in which the rhythms and timing of the original sound source
would reiterate in each variation. My idea was to loop the one-minute animation cycle, keeping its sense of precise
correspondence even as the sound went through a series of changes.” The two worked back and forth for more than a
year, developing the sound-image collaboration, with Brody responding to Gron’s expansive score by abandoning the
idea of strict repetition, adding new animation, color development, and (virtual) camera movement, though retaining the
underlying premise of a looping animation cycle. Each of Brody’s prior animations have also been concerned with
uncanny correspondences between sound and image, beginning with “Beethoven Machinery” (1989), which attempts
to visualize the structure of a quartet movement.
The film “8 Ecstasies” begins with a quotation from Teresa of Ávila, and the installation is inspired by the Baroque
theatricality of Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel, the setting for his most idiosyncratic sculpture, “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa.”
Between showings of the film the darkened space of The Boiler will come to life with projections and illuminations
relating to the animation, including isometric glow-in-the-dark tape drawings on bubble wrap and a hanging sculpture
made of 500 four-inch foam rubber cubes, which will slowly become visible. This will be Brody’s fourth solo show with Pierogi.
The exhibition will include another collaborative project, with the poet and memoirist Nick Flynn (Some Ether, Another
Bullshit Night in Suck City, The Reenactments). Flynn has written a poem – “[salvaged process notes for david brody’s 8
ecstasies]” – using fragments from Brody’s notes recording the technical progress of the animation over several years.
The poem will be published in newspaper format (designed by Adam Robinson) alongside excerpts of the notes and
reproductions of drawings Brody made in relation to “8 Ecstasies.”
Brody’s animations have been exhibited at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, The Museum of Modern Art (NYC),
The Reina Sofia Museum, the Centre Pomidou, and the Drawing Center. He is also a painter, with recent solo
exhibitions at Pierogi and Sometimes Works of Art. He writes for Artcritical.com, Bomb Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and
Cabinet.
Zig Gron, composer of the sound track, is an experimental video artist who has also worked in Hollywood preparing
temporary music tracks for films (including credits as music editor on the all three of The Matrix films).
An event (to be scheduled) will be held at the Boiler during the exhibition in which Zig Gron and Nick Flynn will present
their work.
PIEROGI 177 NORTH 9TH ST. BROOKLYN, NY 11211 T.718.599.2144 [email protected] WWW.PIEROGI2000.COM
The BOILER 191 NORTH 14th ST. BROOKLYN, NY 11211 T.718.599.2144 [email protected] WWW.PIEROGI2000.COM