December 2 – 6, 2020
2020년 12월 2일 – 6일
Flexspace-C Gallery, CICA Museum
The theater of the mind is a constellation of connections. It combines the Kaleidoscope memories of images that pass us. My collage installations mirror this by consuming a space with images of my ephemeral world. Characters from film and comic books combined with images of bowling and advertising are collaged within vintage paper, paint, and illustration.
The process driven practice is about treating the page as an environment of context. When I cut an image out, I treat that piece as an object, removed from its original context. I then store that object away with other objects of its kind. Later, sometimes years later, I pull that object out of storage and use it in a collage. The collage arrangement is treated as keepsakes of a collection, put in a new assembling. Arranged with other collages of the same series, they are a much bigger collection, holding many systems. At first glance, the bright and expressive wall tends to be incomprehensible, but time spent examining, rewards the viewer. They will see repetition, experimentation, and personal expressions.
My work deals with the reappropriation of movies, ads, and comic books through a filter I call Scüzz, which incorporates paint and a reckless use of the material. Using layers of mediums of the visual language that is part of our daily lives, I am able to signify multiple meanings and suggestions using a visual code. I take hold of identifiable images, like scenes from old films or comics, and make them my own, using techniques found in cartooning, graffiti tagging, satire, movie posters, Dada, Surrealism, and various forms of photo collage. My collages consist of paint and paper on wood, are usually no bigger than a few inches, and are unusual shapes. They are made of low and often recycled material. They are for the common audience to think about, and not just the art world.
My art is an expression of how I feel, it is reflective of my influences, and it continues to challenge my creative impulses pushing the compositions further. The work as a whole is process oriented, uses layers in its construction, and is referential of other works of art, including my own interdisciplinary art.
Scüzz is a redirecting of cinema, is taking ownership of advertising, and is a retelling of sequential art as scenes are altered and icons are defaced. Scüzz processes an untouchable high art into a low brow domestic object. Scüzz is lucid dreaming. Scüzz is art referencing itself. Scüzz is “tag you’re it”. Scüzz is your mother’s refrigerator. Scüzz is a pig in the sun. Scüzz is 12 monkeys on a steep jetee. Scüzz is a breathless Jim McBride. Scüzz brings us back to the future. Scüzz is why we can’t have nice things.
I am from North Central Indiana, in the Midwest, of the United States. I was originally a musician, heavily involved in the local music scene in Indiana, then became extremely interested in film, which led me to cartooning as a sequential art form of filmmaking. I drew short graphic novels for 12 years until I started writing novels without the images. Unsatisfied, I began editing and reappropriating movies. I started collecting and cutting movie stills around that time in order to generate material for show flyers, cover art and other visual advertising and merchandise, but then started making stand alone collages with the materials, inspired by a small alternative gallery that opened up across the street from my house. I fell in love with the art form and had my first collage show in the summer of 2016 and have been making small collages ever since. I am currently an MFA candidate in Sculpture at the University of Florida halfway through my final year.
Chad Serhal, “Voommm!” (2020)