Maccarone New York, 2014
Posters for The Trip with original censorship stickers, 2014
The Medium, 2009 / 2014, two pigment prints
The Story / Alien Prototypes (unused), two pigment prints, 2014
The Story / Alien Prototypes (unused), 2014, four pigment prints
Maldistribution Case, 2011 / 2014
Counterfeit Nike ‘Heaven’s Gate’ SB Dunks, 2011 / 2014
Art in America Exhibitions Review
Scott Benzel
June 25 – August 8, 2014
Maccarone
630 Greenwich Street NY
Maccarone proudly announces our first exhibition of Scott Benzel, opening June 25th through August 8th, 2014, featuring a selection of the artist’s works from 2009 to the present. On the occasion of the opening Benzel will perform, Folk Action and Non-Genre III for Belt Sanders and Female Black Metal Guitarist featuring Alex Niemetz.
Benzel’s practice can be understood as an exploration of cultural histories and their subsequent mythologies. Collecting fragments, remnants, and ephemera in an indexical manner, Benzel combines these often forgotten objects into aggregates of contradiction and altered meaning. With sculptural installations, photographic works, and sound he inhabits the role of artist as researcher. Unhinging each object’s original use-value through accumulation, misuse and convergence, obscure narratives form. Objects include:
metallic c-print of ‘Slash’ image of Spock; metallic c-print of ‘Fakir’ image of Lady Diana; counterfeit Nike SB Dunk ‘Heaven’s Gate’ shoes; The Trip original movie posters with original censorship stickers; Bison Dele,last game-worn jersey; The Beach Boys, ‘Never Learn Not to Love’ 45 RPM single; Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung; Esquire Magazine December 1967 editorial featuring Sharon Tate, ‘A Beginners Guide to Mao Tse-Tung’; Life Magazine December 1969 editorial featuring ‘The Wreck of a Monstrous Family’; Polish film poster for Weekend U Berniego; Polish film poster for Miłošč Szmaragd I Krokodyl; archival pigment prints of unused alien prototypes from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey; archival pigment prints of storyboards from the unrealized film The Story; ‘Love Roses’ disguised pipes; ‘Lipstick’ disguised pipe; U.S. Postal Service stamps depicting The Statue of Liberty at New York, New York, Las Vegas; The Silver Apples’ debut LP with Kmart 99c Special Sale sticker; Artforum magazine November 1974 featuring ad for Lynda Benglis at Paula Cooper Gallery; ‘Hi-Liter’ disguised pipe; October Magazine No. 1, Spring 1976, featuring Michel Foucault, “Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe”; video featuring The Beach Boys performing ‘Never Learn Not to Love’ live on the Mike Douglas show with: 1. original sound 2. Charles Manson singing ‘Cease to Exist’ 3. ‘Never Learn Not to Love’ (studio version); archival pigment print of Bob Dylan’s hair; archival pigment print of flames of monk self-immolating; Knabe baby grand piano; c-print of woman with spectrum-dyed hair; Rode NK1 tube microphone; DR microphone stand; Kicker Comp 15 bass speakers; Shure SM58 microphone; Ultravoice XM8500 microphones; spectrum-colored XLR cables; Samson Servo 1200 amplifier; Yamaha EMX 212S power mixer; Shuggie Otis ‘Freedom Flight’ LP; two Allen Ruppersberg color xeroxes; Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko with stickers; Post-WWII German postcard with overprinting; Post-Islamic-Revolution Iranian banknote with overprinting; British pound coin with over- stamping; metallic c-print of Barker Ranch, Death Valley, CA; two glasses of seawater; yellow polypropylene rope forming two nooses; Leonard Nimoy-designed monogrammed towel; counterfeit Leonard Nimoy-designed monogrammed towel; Malcolm Mclaren business card; counterfeit Malcolm Mclaren business cards; Gustav Metzger object; counterfeit Gustav Metzger objects; silver gelatin print of plastic flower; metallic c-print of L.A. Times recreation of Patricia Hearst’s point of view on Mel’s Sporting Goods, site of SLA shootout, May 16th, 1974; The Lost Continent of Mu by James Churchward; Library of Congress facsimile of The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson; Vietnam War-era Vietnamese Bible; Tijuana Bibles – Jean Harloe and Clark Gable; The Beatles, The Beatles (White Album); Kiosk displaying various books and magazines modeled after Jean-Luc Godard’s “ideology shop” in One Plus One.
Scott Benzel was born in 1968 in Scottsdale, AZ and lives and works in Los Angeles. His work has been shown or performed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum Of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, LA><ART, and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and was featured in Made in LA 2012, the first Los Angeles Biennial, at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Benzel has curated shows at the MAK Center/Schindler House, Los Angeles and the Welcome Inn, Eagle Rock, CA, as part of Pacific Standard Time organized by the Getty Museum, among others.
For more information on the exhibition, please call the gallery at 212 431 4977 or email press@maccarone.net.Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 AM – 6 PM.