jerry meyer: civilization and its discontents

in an exhibition that includes a series of lightbox assemblages as well as a largescale installation, american artist jerry meyer's
'civilization and its discontents' plays on culture, psychology, narrative, and fiction. the solo show is on now through
saturday, may 28th 2011, at denise bibro fine art in new york city.

 

titled after sigmund freud's book, the exhibition includes a series of wall-mounted light boxes whose bright colours and playful,
collaged texts visually effect a kind of cross between nostalgic shadowboxes and carnival machines or highway attractions.
the majority of the photoshopped texts and images poke fun at psychology, neurosis, guilt, and repression in modern society,
although pieces that pay tribute to billie holiday, for example, or meyer's great aunt, explore more emotional aspects of memory and culture.
word and language play is used to humorous effect throughout the series, particularly in meyer's 'hit parade' (pictured above), 'more greatest hits',
and 'favorite oldies' boxes, where he replaces the titles of well-known songs and musicians with aging-related puns on the original texts.

 

these works lead to the centerpoint of the exhibition, the room-sized installation 'my great-grandfather’s attempts to turn sexual energy
into electricity to power small machinery based on the principles of sigmund freud and nikola tesla'. in the piece, multicoloured light
radiates from within wooden dynamite crates, while an antique dressmaker's form dressed in victorian attire is wired to the myriad machinery.
the construction includes old voltmeters and other gauges, relabeled and retrofitted to create devices like the 'fantasy booster'.
a purported academic paper, written by an invented art historian on the experimental equipment and its creator (meyer's fictional
great-grandfather harris claster), continues the exhibition's play on history, culture, and narrative.