24 Tilt Trucks, 2003, plastic, 168 x 294 x 120 inches
24 Tilt Trucks, 2003, plastic, 168 x 294 x 120 inches
Free Flier (White and Grey), plastic, both measuring 46 x 32 x 32 inches each
White Paper Pile, 2003, silkscreen on paper and wood, 108 x 108 x 108 inches
6 Black Bins (Small), 2003, plastic, 70 x 70 x 70 inches
9 Piece Mimoid, 2001, 9 framed works pigment on paper, 82 1/2 x 82 1/2 inches
James Cohan Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition Tilt Trucks and Free-Fliers by British artist Ian Dawson.
In Dawson's newest body of work he utilizes large industrial plastic bins, commonly known as tilt trucks, and sidewalk free-flier newspaper distribution boxes. He continues to create large-scale sculptures from mass-produced plastic objects that have been transformed and reconfigured by exposure to intense heat. The results are colorful and massive accumulations. The notion of entropy is evident in the work, as Dawson asserts, "I build and destroy in one neat cycle." These works occupy a tentative position between painting and sculpture, echoing process art and found objects, where violence and beauty, humor and uselessness reside seamlessly in Dawson's sculptures.
In the second gallery, Dawson's White Paper Pile is comprised of silk-screened sheets of paper printed by the artist, which have then been crumpled and piled high as if randomly tossed into the corner of the room. Referring to disposable information and tangentially to the bins used in the tilt trucks works, White Paper Pile further exemplifies Dawson's interest in structure and its dematerialization.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Sean Kelly and Margaret Silva of Grand Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, who generously sponsored Ian Dawson's Tilt Trucks and Free Flierspresented in March 2003