ODDDUCK is coming and you've got nowhere to hide!

Opening January 17, 2009 Tinlark presents in its project room ODDDUCK: A Collection of Items of a Perplexing Nature featuring the uniquely eccentric artwork of multiple artists, curated by Jessica Devereaux.

ODDDUCK brings together a quasi cabinet of curiosity inspired collection of works that spring from the artists’ idiosyncratic interpretations of nature. As “perplex” is to render someone unable to think of something logically, each participant in this multimedia show presents the natural world as more alchemy than science. Their subject matters draw from elements of topography, anthropology, documentary and the macabre, each work enlivened with the absurd and poetic.

The taxidermy-laden installations of Elijah Crampton make use of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects of the macabre.  Zig Gron's use of multiple projectors playfully shakes the boundary of perception and imagination.  Katherine Guillen brings the outside in with her painterly conceptual-cum-performance documentation of giving people what they pine for to satisfy their personal fantasies about nature.  Anna Medina has compiled a dictionary that defines and illustrates scores of animal and plant species that had yet to be defined. They're considered "fictitious" and "invented," at least for now.  Rebecca Lowry's Braille- embroidered maps combine the subtlety of haiku with the globally understood structure of measured landscape for quiet and poignant results.  The b/w photographs of bats by Matthew Rainwaters fly between a spelunking expedition in the caves of darkest Peru and the flickerings of a haunted dream on the back of one's eyelids.  When confronted with the sculpture of Dan Van Clapp you doubt your senses, you doubt history, you doubt that anything could remain authentic, and nor should it.  Curator Jessica Devereaux spends her days as a gallery assistant at art world landmark Gemini G.E.L. and her nights playing the glockenspiel in performance art band Puppy Dog. To fill in the gaps she cooks elaborate meals with her friends and is equally devoted to linguistic theory and dive bars.

Image: Anna Medina, "Dictionary of Lost Worlds"

Image: Rebecca Lowry "Snow on the Window"