Homage to Jim Condron
Homage to Jim Condron
HAND SEWN MASKS by Kathrine Page
Picasso is altogether bad, completely beside the point from the beginning except for
Cubist period and even that half misunderstood…. Ugly. Old-fashioned vulgar
without sensitivity, horrible in color or non-color. Very bad painter once and for all.”
-Alberto Giacometti on Pablo Picasso
In 2019, I offered Jim Condron a solo exhibition to display his exhibition, Trash Talk: History in
Assemblage. His multi-media constructions assembled salvaged materials such as paint, thickening mediums, solvents, adhesives, fabric remnants, fur, and other materials. The works were paired with “trash talking” quotations by famous artists and authors about the work of other famous artists and authors, such as Giacometti on Picasso above. They read like assembled words stitched together with conjunctions, prepositions, and colorful adjectives. Pieced together, the works often defy logic, but the logic is bound in the act of preserving incongruous items just like a decent patchwork quilt from Aunt Lucy. The cast aside finds new relevance, new visual harmony, and sensory equivalence. Likewise, the castoff pieces of fabric and notions in this mask are imbued with a new purpose: shielding the face during the pandemic, particularly the mouth, as a metaphor to replace trash talk with, perhaps, more harmonious conversations.
100% cotton, Pellon interfacing, cotton-polyester crochet, polyester ribbon.