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Famous Last Words
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| A powerful testament to the potential of language as art, Famous Last Words, the latest show by artist and author James Rosenthal, recently graced Rebekah Templeton Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Like a Monday crossword puzzle in the Inquirer, Rosenthal’s work asks the viewer: what is mightier than the sword? – then ups the ante. By the time you finish with Sunday’s puzzle, or, in this case, the exhibition’s, he has you answering: the paintbrush, the stencil, scissors, a television screen, the string of Chinese lanterns tied-up with last year’s Christmas lights, your old LPs, and the mirror. Rosenthal’s work creates meaning organically but is processed linearly, like language. His style explores this apparent contradiction by using words and letters simultaneously – both in art and as art. By playing upon our expectations, the exhibition constantly interacts with the audience. This dynamic operates on many levels, all of which are open-ended. For instance, Rosenthal’s pieces are themselves made up of pieces; ransom-note letters cut from magazines misspell messages. Chopped-up messages interlace with tugboats, airplanes, and airbrushed auras, or spiral on a still record whose song can only be read – in the rose-tinted mirror on the floor. Every new piece leads to a new perspective, encouraging continuous reinterpretation. The pieces, and the pieces within the pieces, are engaged in an exponentially multiplying dialogue -- with one another, with the collection, and with the viewer, all at once! The complexity of the show lies in the cleverness of its simplicity -- to use a line featured in various contexts of the major installation piece: “If I could produce epics on a shoe-string, I wouldn’t be writing this over and over again.” Your gaze, too, repeatedly flits about the room, and the whole increasingly takes on form, content, and meaning. The tangents evolve into sense, or at least sensibility. The overall effect is very much like having a conversation with Rosenthal, who might, in a pretend begrudging fashion, permit himself to be described as a particular combination of "schlock and aura." In that sense, the exhibition communicates something of his personality, as well as his delightfully sardonic sense of humor. There is as much food for thought as you can stomach, depending on your taste for plurality of meaning. The works speak with all the vigor of a fire on the verge of a blaze. In short, famous, infamous, or otherwise, Rosenthal’s exhibition is anything but his "last words." Back to InLiquid's
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section index © 2009 Pamela Zinn and InLiquid; image copyright © James Rosenthal |
