Jason Gandy
Jason Gandy took part in 5 shows at Rabbithole, 33 Washington Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013).
Photos and ephemera
ATIXIP: TE FOXL — Jason Gandy 15 Nov 2007 – 16 Jan 2008
PATTI SMITH'S FRIDGE 7 – 30 May 2009
Click a picture to see it larger.
Videos
- Rabbithole Benefit Video (feat. Jason Bartell) - Armory Week (Sat 9 Mar 2013, 7–11 pm)
- Raro and the Golden Dolphin (Sat 9 Mar 2013, 7–11 pm)
- The benefit party, 9 March 2013 (Sat 9 Mar 2013, 7–11 pm)
- 15 Nov 2007 – 16 Jan 2008: ATIXIP: TE FOXL — Jason Gandy
- 4 – 29 Sep 2008: 33 WASHINGTON: A RETROSPECTIVE
- 7 – 30 May 2009: PATTI SMITH'S FRIDGE
- 19–21 Mar 2010: ATIXIP PART 2 — Jason Gandy (live installation)
- Sat 9 Mar 2013, 7–11 pm: Benefit & Silent Auction for Hurricane Sandy Recovery (Armory Week)
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.