Chris Johanson at Deitch Projects. Photograph AFC
I took a look at Chris Johanson’s Totalities Deitch Projects this week at The L Magazine. The teaser below.
Much like the pictorial sequence in a comic book, Chris Johanson’s Totalities at Deitch Projects transforms the gallery into a path-like architectural space that structures the viewing experience. In other words, there’s a start and finish to the show, an armature and panel arrangement of paintings that dictates audience interaction with the work, providing little means to escape the road the artist asks you to follow.
The first and arguably strongest room in this exhibition in three parts can be described as an abstracted version of multiple off-site Stargate Atlantis sets. In the center of the space, a grey diamond-esque shape rotates while music plays overhead. Painted landscapes, abstract color fields and rainbow hieroglyphics representing the past, the present and the future are supported by armatures surrounding the moving sculpture. No room to view any work in its totality is provided but for the multicolored swirl painting at the exit. Presumably this is meant to mirror our own inability to view the world in its totality while observing from within.
To read the full review click here.
