PAST
Matthew Day Jackson:New Landscape
Each work is a meditation on exploration, the past found in the present, and is a critical discourse of technology and our persistent tendencies to open Pandora’s Box.
– Matthew Day Jackson
Qiao Space and Hauser & Wirth are pleased to present ‘New Landscape,’ an exhibition by American artist Matthew Day Jackson. This exhibitionmarks the artist’s first solo presentation in China.
Born in Panorama City, California, in 1974 and currently living and working in New York City, Matthew Day Jackson’s multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, video, performance, and installation. His work grapples with ideas such as theevolution of human thought, the fatal attraction of the frontier, and the faith that man places in technological advancement. Using the worldaround him – scorched wood, molten lead, mother-of-pearl, precious metals, Formica, and found objects such as worn T-shirts, prostheticlimbs, axe handles, and posters – Jackson explores the forces of creation, growth, transcendence, and death through visions of its failedutopia. On view through 21 January 2019, the exhibition spans the breadth of Jackson’s interdisciplinary oeuvre with eleven works that highlight an interest in the history of landscapes: from the mythical to the historical, from the newly discovered to the bustling cityscape. Jackson raises political, ethical, and social questions about both the past and present. Heexamines the competing notions of growth and destruction through the depiction of recognizable landscapes, including the city of Babel, from theOld Testament of the Bible; Disneyland; the surface of the moon; Yosemite National Park in California; and Beihai Park in Beijing. The most recent paintings on view are floral still lifes – direct references to the flower paintings made by Flemish Baroque painters Jan Brueghelthe Elder and Jan Brueghel the Younger during the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Dutch Republic was reaching its height of colonialexpansion. While the artworks from this period proudly demonstrated great wealth, the bouquets were in fact fantasies: none of those flowerscould have grown in the same season or climate. Underneath the beauty of these gilded works lie clues of decay and destruction, foreshadowingglobal trade that exists today. Jackson’s paintings delve below the surface to reveal a certain truth: Jackson signals the pitfalls of the ceaselessmisuse and abuse of the natural world through the greed of scientific and technological advancement. Process and substance further convey meaning in Jackson’s works. The flower ‘paintings’ are made using only artificial and manufacturedmaterials such as plywood, epoxy, and Formica – a material meant to imitate the look of stone or wood and is utilized as kitchen countertops in many American homes. Jackson contrasts the floral representations by pouring lead, a known poisonous and toxic substance, around thecenterpiece. Furthermore, he silkscreens photographic images of atomic bomb clouds onto the Formica, demonstrating his visual fascination withthe nuclear era which appears in much of Jackson’s imagery.
This symbolism is most prevalent in Jackson’s ‘August 6, 1945’ series of paintings composed of scorched wood and molten lead, depicting aerialviews of various cities and public spaces around the world. The works imagine soot from the atomic bombs coating the entire world, and these sculptural representations extend beyond the frame to confront the viewer, forcing them to recognize possible destruction, not only in Hiroshimaand Nagasaki, but in cities around the world such as Dresden, Tokyo, Baghdad, and Washington D.C.
The essence of Jackson’s work resonates with metaphor, combining apocalyptic elements with the fruits of new technologies, and historicalimagery with contemporary ingredients. Ideas are granted physical form, and it is in the clash between the two, in the material impact of idealistthought, that it derives its force. Persistent throughout Jackson’s oeuvre is the examination of human relationship with nature, and the inescapable repercussions of history and tradition, which have lasting impact today.
ARTIST
Matthew Day Jackson’s solo exhibitions include ‘Still Life and the Reclining Nude’, Hauser & Wirth London, London, England (2018); ‘New American Art’, Studio des Acacias, Paris, France (2015); ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’, Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta, Atlanta GA(2015); ‘Family’, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; ‘Something Ancient, Something New, Something Stolen, Something Blue’, Hauser& Wirth New York, New York, NY; ‘Total Accomplishment’ at Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany (2013); ’In Search of…’,Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands (2012), which travelled to MAMbo Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Italy and to Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2011); ‘Everything Leads to Another’, Hauser & Wirth London, London, England; ‘The ImmeasurableDistance’, MIT List Visual Art Center, Cambridge MA (2009) which travelled to Contemporary Art Museum, Houston TX (2009).