ONCE AROUND THE BLOCK (TWICE) (2011)
Feb 25 - April 2, 2011 at NurtureArt in Brooklyn, NY
From gallery press release:
Given a time where digital images reign in overabundance around our visual periphery and copyright laws hover over every creative endeavor, it’s difficult to imagine a computerized world in its infancy where advertisements are stocked and shared outside of a global network. Kiernan takes us on a journey through the redolent caverns of pre-internet digital advertising images, which made their mark without the intention of originality that is ubiquitous today.
Once Around the Block (Twice) excavates a particular familiarity of the recent past, using visuals from “royalty-free” clip art of the early 1990’s. The images are shifted in scale and lack the necessary content that would eventually render them complete advertisements, resulting in a series of starkly contrasted, visually arresting paintings and kinetic sculpture in black and white. In his use of these “interchangeable,” stock motifs, Kiernan brings into question the strive for individuality of our current economic climate by posing a recognizable perspective from a not too distant past.
From gallery press release:
Given a time where digital images reign in overabundance around our visual periphery and copyright laws hover over every creative endeavor, it’s difficult to imagine a computerized world in its infancy where advertisements are stocked and shared outside of a global network. Kiernan takes us on a journey through the redolent caverns of pre-internet digital advertising images, which made their mark without the intention of originality that is ubiquitous today.
Once Around the Block (Twice) excavates a particular familiarity of the recent past, using visuals from “royalty-free” clip art of the early 1990’s. The images are shifted in scale and lack the necessary content that would eventually render them complete advertisements, resulting in a series of starkly contrasted, visually arresting paintings and kinetic sculpture in black and white. In his use of these “interchangeable,” stock motifs, Kiernan brings into question the strive for individuality of our current economic climate by posing a recognizable perspective from a not too distant past.
