Future Retrieval x Chris Vorhees, Image of Order (detail) 2014, cut paper, LEDs, porcelain, plexiglass, wood, formica. 10 x 8 x 2 1/2 ft. Courtesy of the artists. Image on homepage: Future Retrieval, Bonsai Collection, 2015, porcelain and PVD, sizes vary, approx. 10-12 in. tall. Courtesy of the artists.
FUTURE RETRIEVAL X CHRIS VORHEES
September 17 – October 23, 2015
Thursday, September 17
Opening @ 5:00 – 8:00 PM
The Artists Talk with curator James Barker @ 7:00 PM in the Euclid Avenue Gallery
Future Retrieval is the collaborative effort of Cincinnati based artists Katie Parker and Guy Michael Davis. The collaboration highlights the best of both artist’s studio practice, and features a refined balance between design, craft and nods to the historical lineage of decorative art. The resultant works are bright and palpable, with an abstracted and at times critical vision of idealized form and landscape. With a vested interest in neo-classical interiors, Future Retrieval loads the work with references to medieval hunting scenes, taxidermy, and the decorative arts often associated with the European aristocracy. Parker and Davis both with backgrounds in ceramics, play on the cultural associations of porcelain to further heighten the perceived value of the sculptures.
In 2014 Future Retrieval further collaborated with Cincinnati based sculpture artist Chris Vorhees to create Image of Order, “a period room on wheels that referenced the monolith – a large black box that opens into another world, somewhere in an alternate future. The final object is a period room without a period, the interior suggesting a time and a place that is both alien and familiar.” This interior is lined with a hand cut wallpaper landscape, adding a quality of time-intensive labor to the bleak and seemingly untouched monolith. Porcelain statues of Michelangelo’s David fill the interior niches. Upon closer inspection these figures are in an abstract and mutated state, and seem to be recalculating the classical notion of idealized form. The exterior of the monolith is covered in black mirrored Formica, allowing the viewer to see themselves in its reflection, a small substitute for not being able to go inside…”.
Exhibited alongside Image of Order is a series of smaller, more intimate sculptures, featuring porcelain iterations of bonsai trees, framed by arcs that reference the neo-classical niches. The bonsai again references qualities of labor and time as well as notions of idealized form. Delicately lit, the exhibition has a space like quality, and contains an aura of some space in time we have yet to get acquainted with.
About the Artists
Founded in 2008, Future Retrieval is the studio collaboration of Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker. The pieces created utilize three-dimensional scanning and digital manufacturing of found forms that are molded and constructed in porcelain, mimicking the history of decorative arts and design. Our process addresses the conceptualization, discovery, and acquisition of form, to make content-loaded sculptures that reference design and are held together by craft. We incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to our work, striving to make influential historic objects relevant to today.
Chris Vorhees (b. 1972; based in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a sculptor and furniture maker who brings exquisite craft skills and a deep sense of play to his projects. Vorhees’s solo work has been shown at the Henry Art Gallery (2002); Bard College (2003); the Illinois State University Art Gallery (2004); New Gallery Chris Vorhees (b. 1972; based in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a sculptor and furniture maker by trade. His work has also been shown in the New Center for Contemporary Art, Louisville (2007); and the Herron School of Art and Design (2010). He received an Efroymson Fellowship Award in 2009. Vorhees’ work centers around contextualization of objects, commoditization of objects, and the fetishization of design and remodeling as it specifically related to the built domestic environment. American fascination with design trends, work and leisure are themes that are explored in work today. The role of the artist/craftsman maker in relation to industrial production systems is also an ongoing theme. Currently he lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio.
About the Guest Curator
Founded in 2008, Future Retrieval is the studio collaboration of Guy Michael Davis and Katie Parker. The pieces created utilize three-dimensional scanning and digital manufacturing of found forms that are molded and constructed in porcelain, mimicking the history of decorative arts and design. Our process addresses the conceptualization, discovery, and acquisition of form, to make content-loaded sculptures that reference design and are held together by craft. We incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to our work, striving to make influential historic objects relevant to today.
Chris Vorhees (b. 1972; based in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a sculptor and furniture maker who brings exquisite craft skills and a deep sense of play to his projects. Vorhees’s solo work has been shown at the Henry Art Gallery (2002); Bard College (2003); the Illinois State University Art Gallery (2004); New Gallery Chris Vorhees (b. 1972; based in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a sculptor and furniture maker by trade. His work has also been shown in the New Center for Contemporary Art, Louisville (2007); and the Herron School of Art and Design (2010). He received an Efroymson Fellowship Award in 2009. Vorhees’ work centers around contextualization of objects, commoditization of objects, and the fetishization of design and remodeling as it specifically related to the built domestic environment. American fascination with design trends, work and leisure are themes that are explored in work today. The role of the artist/craftsman maker in relation to industrial production systems is also an ongoing theme. Currently he lives and works in Cincinnati, Ohio.
