Dorian McKaie
Lucia's Beautiful New Glasses
April 4th-May 10th, 2015
Opening reception:
Saturday, April 4th, 2015
7-10pm
Dear Master,
I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
Through the corridor, dark and carpeted, and past the black horned box, the rooms were lofty and handsome, and their furniture—wooden boxes painted black: a red light glowing here, a black woman reposing there—suitable to the fortune of its owner. But I saw, with admiration of his taste, that it was neither gaudy, nor uselessly fine; with less of splendor and more real elegance—that deep, Chinese burning red—than the furniture to which I had previously been personally accustomed.
"And of this place," thought I as I pondered all these wondrously foreign things, "I might now be mistress! With these rooms I might now be familiarly acquainted! Instead of viewing them as a stranger, I might rejoice in them as my own, and welcome to them as visitors my uncle and aunt."
To the left of a wall bearing three red spots, and around a black box, inside of which was the head of a small black boy—beyond these things which were neither proud nor prostrated, there was a cut of rug, worn with time and ample impressions. On this rug stood another small boy, also sturdy but fair, and next to it, a rectangular frame. In this frame, beneath some small trinkets, lay a picture of two Jews of middling age, and strewn just beyond the frame, the flag of Japan.
Deep down, we feel the same things. We memorialize our things because they are important. We know money is only a stereotype. Chinese dust is red, and all the rest. This work is not work at all. It is mental labor. It is coming to the edge of the cliff and realizing “I am a cliff."
Yours,
Lucia
Lucia’s Beautiful New Glasses, 2015
Boombox, wood filler, foam, latex paint, LCD screen, electronics
22 1/2 x 20 x 7 inches
Untitled, 2015
Fiberglass mannequin, wood, sand, latex paint, clothing
93 1/2 x 63 1/2 x 30 inches
Untitled, 2015 (detail)
Blood Moon, 2014
Wood, sand, latex paint, plexiglass, light bulb, wire
20 x 20 x 19 inches
Blood Moon, 2015
Plywood, MDF, felt
168 x 72 inches
Mom, 2013-2015
Fiberglass mannequin, carpet, Speedball box, speaker mount, frame, pages from Mao’s Little Red Book, plexiglass, sunglass lenses, pin, transistor, pebble, capacitor, shell, mesh, canvas, spring, flag
137 x 53 x 30 inches
Untitled, 2015
Plywood, MDF, felt
69 1/2 x 31 inches
Mom, 2013-2015 (detail)
Hellraiser, 2014
Fiberglass mannequin, plywood, chopsticks, concrete, latex paint, salt, sand, tea lights
33 x 14 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches
Hellraiser, 2014 (detail)