A day in L.A./ Bergamot Station: D3 Projects

D3 Projects, "Dissociate" by Vanessa Matthews

We arrive at Bergamot Station, it is our first visit and we decide to go around, starting at D3 Projects, a small gallery, next to the Michigan Avenue entrance, which presents "Dissociate" an exhibition by Vanessa Matthews. Nice surprise: dozens of dolls are hanging from the ceiling, a big soft sculpture stands in the middle of the unique room and on the walls are displayed small paintings on wood panels. Walking around, one can read words on the paintings: lovely, dissociate, toxic, strange, oven, sabotage, back-off!

It has a childish feeling mixed with a comic aesthetic (reminiscent of Gorillaz: with a lot of humor).

The dolls are made of all sorts of different materials: fur, canvas, vinyl, leather, fleece, rubber, capsules, voile, silk, suede, taffeta, and so on. They all have a name on a list on the desk at the entrance of the gallery: Sad Girl, Heart Boy, Bag Head, evil cupcake, and more. They are for sale individually. But I think the whole series is interesting as it is.

“Characters were born out of this process of expressing the artist's pent up aggravation: Parking tickets, road rage, traffic, inflation, ignorance, control freaks and the annoyance of being forced to comply with pointless rules sparked the lives of personalities who could speak her suppressed language. Through the rants of these angry little children, Matthews grants anyone trapped in the confines of adulthood the permission to say all the things that propriety forbids.”

I like to be surprised by the way a body of work is presented and this presentation is definitely interesting. I would like my children to see this exhibition!

Let's go to the next gallery...

Dissociate by Vanessa Matthews
D3 Projects
Bergamot Station
March 15 - May 30, 2008