15 NOV 07: ATIXIP: TE FOXL by Jason Gandy
ATIXIP: TE FOXL by Jason Gandy
November 15, 2007 – January 17, 2008
Opening reception Thursday, November 15, 7 – 9p
Closing reception Saturday, January 12, 7 – 9p
Rabbithole Studio is pleased to present ATIXIP: TE FOXL, a seminal work from New York born artist, Jason Gandy. Wetting our palettes, this exhibition is the first of a series and introduces us to an ostensibly private, if not secret, story. Characters and environments, well defined and three-dimensional, are thrust upon the viewer only to leave us grasping at who, what and where they are. These highly designed forms of predominantly wood and leather are impressions - refracted reflections - of a story Gandy is inviting us – luring us – to witness. It’s a story of ethereal ships, armored ghosts and mythic creatures. This is a show of vessels, some empty and wanting, some full and searching, but all somehow alive and all apparently unaware of or disinterested in us, their audience.
The Caravaggian lighting supports any presumption that these forms are from a darkness, from the unknown, from a place we are not privy to. ‘Atixipman’ [read ‘Attic-ship-man’] seems to beckon us from our well-lit entryway into his shadows. This piece resembles a life-size, fully articulated suit of armor crafted with thousands of individually shaped pieces of bamboo, oak and maple. Gandy, an expert craftsman, has molded each piece of wood to contour the body of its missing host. Completing the suit is a mask with a crudely carved and primitive visage. Yet despite the armor and the rugged mask, a gentle delicacy is attained through its pose, kneeling on one knee and gently reaching out.
‘Te Foxl w/Skroo-I’ [The Fo'c'sle with Screw-eye] resembles the stern of a boat emerging through the gallery wall. Worn pulley blocks serve as steps for the viewer to look into a warmly lit porthole. Through the porthole, the viewer sees an approximation of the full length of a ship from stern to bow, what would seem a distance of some 40’, though the gallery wall is only two feet distant from the porthole.
Bearing sharp reference to Duchamp and Brunelleschi, ‘Gohnisip’ [Gohni ship] is a small ship with a tiny porthole. Aside from the careful craftsmanship of this gilded ship, we notice nothing remarkable until we look through the porthole. There, inside the ship, we see a tiny human-like creature though furry and with horns. He seems to be deliberately stitching something and not paying mind to much else.
Bringing texture to this world, are an assortment of ‘Trees’ which seem to be an industrialized revision of the bonsai, full of corners and hard lines yet preserving the organic gestures of bonsai branches.
Gandy’s work nudges the viewer to become the privileged outsider, the peeping Tom, thrilled to see what shouldn’t be seen, thrilled to see without being seen. We take for granted that Gandy has some authority here, and so we look without shame. We look instead, for a moment at least, with a hint, or more, of childlike elation, with that wonder that spins us silly when we witness the impossible.
Jason Gandy was born and raised on Roosevelt Island in New York City. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He has most recently exhibited work in a group show with the Dean Street Collective.
Artists: Jason Gandy · Performer, as the creature Gonai, at the closing reception on 12 January 2008: Juliette Morel
Ephemera
Poster — 2007. Original design file — photo of a printed copy.
Photos and ephemera
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Press
- 24 Seven (“Art Scene”, p. A8), 2008-01-11, Dan Marrin (Article)
Dan Marrin’s “Art Scene” piece on Jason Gandy’s solo show at Rabbit Hole Studio, 33 Washington Street. It describes the installation built around the Attic Ship, a fictional vessel Gandy had worked on for eight years in his Gowanus woodshop: the ship’s stern on the wall with a porthole to look through, the life-size Attic Ship Man in a suit of maple and coloured leather, and a small boat with a peephole. There were no wall labels; Gandy and Shawn Lyons walked visitors through the work. Illustrated with a photograph of the Attic Ship Man.
Read the article (transcription)
Art Scene
All hands on deck for ‘Atixip’ at DUMBO’s Rabbit Hole
By Dan MarrinBrooklyn’s own Jason Gandy, 35, is a woodworker as imaginative as he is precise. In his new solo show, “Atixip Te Foxl,” at DUMBO’s Rabbit Hole studio, he has taken a fantasy world of his, years in the making, and made it tangible.
The show runs from now until January 16 at Rabbit Hole, located at 33 Washington Street. The title “Atixip: Te Foxl” looks like ancient Mayan, Greek or Russian writing. Rather than putting an English translation, Gandy says he prefers to keep you using your imagination on what it means.
The title actually derives from Gandy’s own shorthand for “ATTIC SHIP: THE FOCSUL.” The Attic Ship is a 22’ by 14’ ship that sits in the attic of Gandy’s woodshop, and the focsul refers to the ship’s forward deck, visible in one of the exhibit pieces.
Gandy has been building the ship for the last eight years in his free time while working as an interior designer in Gowanus. In the process of building the ship, he began imagining a fictional world in which it sails, which has led to the art in the exhibit.
Gandy, a graduate of the Tyler School of Art, comes to the exhibit with experience on the water. He grew up on Roosevelt Island well aware of water and boats rushing by all around him. He later interned for the Circle Line every summer in college. When asked to do a piece for a group show at art school, he made a boat and thought it was the most fun he ever had on a piece. The idea of building a ship then hit him when he moved into his woodshop in Gowanus and found he had an enormous attic space.
“Atixip” has four main elements. The 6’ wide wooden stern, or rear section, of the Attic Ship, takes up one wall. A small wooden craft called Gohni’s ship takes the other wall. The Attic Ship’s attendant, Attic Ship Man, sits on a pedestal, and an exhibit in the back room of the studio shows Gandy’s drawings and writings, shedding light on his method and his imagination.
Gandy says the Attic Ship could be from the past or the future, either an old sailboat or an intergalactic ship crossing worlds.
The piece getting the most attention, he says, is the Attic Ship’s tiny companion, Gohni’s ship. If you look through a peephole in this 18” by 4” ship, there seems to be a small gray troll in a suit jacket at work knitting. Puzzled visitors have been asking Gandy how the image of this troll, named Gohni, has been put together, whether it is a video being played or a still photo image being manipulated. When asked, gallery owner Shawn Lyons smiles and says, “No one is ready to accept that there’s just a little man in there.”
Next, there is the Attic Ship Man, who supervises the ship’s repairs. The man wears a 30 pound suit made of maple and colored leather that would stand 5’8 if upright. The suit resembles Japanese samurai armor, with a wooden face mask Gandy carved from a model boat. The man is hunched over in a primitive stance, down on one knee, with a hand stretching forward. Gandy says the suit took 3 years to complete, during which he went through research of armor styles from Eastern and Western traditions.
The largest piece in the room is the ship’s stern, a 6’ wide by 3’ high wooden piece hung on the wall, with a porthole at the back. Peering inside, you see what seems a long forward deck of the ship beyond the window, though there is barely any space beyond the glass. Just as with Gohni, Gandy uses the peepholes to challenge perceptions.
The studio is deliberately set in shadows with spotlights only on the pieces. There are no descriptions for them on the walls. Gandy and the studio owner, Shawn Lyons, prefer to take the visitors through the exhibit themselves, taking questions and more importantly enjoying your reflections on the pieces and the story Gandy is creating with them.
Beyond the ships, the back room offers an insight into Gandy’s mind, with his notebook pages covering the walls. The pages resemble the sketches of Renaissance artists, including detailed sketches of Western and Eastern armor, and complex mathematical formulas for the design of the Attic Ship.
The story of the Attic Ship continues to develop along with the woodwork. Gandy says there will be at least one more exhibit, if not a third, before the whole story has been told.
“Atixip: Te Foxl” runs at Rabbit Hole (33 Washington Street) until January 16. For more information, call 718-852-1500.
Photo caption: “Jason Gandy’s Atixip Man, on display at Rabbit Hole Studio until January 16.”
24 Seven, January 11, 2008, page A8. Transcribed from the clipping and reproduced with the kind permission of the author, Dan Marrin.
See also
Were you there? If you have photos or memories of this event, please share them. Nothing is published until it has been reviewed.
Reconstructed for this archive from the show’s own card and texts; not posted at the time. Part of the Rabbithole timeline.