JIM SHAW
O o-ist inspired works
exhibition from 15 June to 14 September 2003
Curator : Fabrice Stroun
Oism, a religion said to have been founded in the mid-18th century in
the Finger Lake region (New York State), is the new fiction conceived
by Jim Shaw. Inspired by messianic cults active in the Bible Belt, Oism
preaches the adoration of a feminine divinity, reincarnation, time running
backward, and the prohibition of figurative representation. Once controversial,
Oism has now become an integral part of mainstream American culture.
This exhibition brings together for the first time all the Oist-inspired
works made to this day.
The Goodman Image File and Study is a series of abstract paintings
presented as being the work of the Oist painter Adam O. Goodman, and his
archives of “forbidden” figurative imagery.
The Rite of the 360 Degrees presents the musical instruments
in the form of human body parts and the uniforms necessary for enacting
a secret rite of passage for an all-male Oist order.
The Donner Party recalls both Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, a paradigmatic
work of 1970s essentialist feminism, and one of the bleakest events in
the history of the colonization of California, when a community of pioneers
isolated in a valley ended up eating each other. It is said to be the
work of Oist artist Mandy Omaha.
The Oist Student Paintings are -supposedly- the works of a fine
art student rebelling against her religious and artistic education whilst
Paintings Found in Oist Thrift Stores is a collection of Oist amateur
paintings that Shaw is said to have collected during trips to Iowa and
Nebraska.
Finally the Oist Movie Poster Paintings announce hypothetical
Oist epics.
Following My Mirage (1985 – 1990), which relates the misadventures
of Billy, a teenager lost in the turmoil of the 1960s, and Dream (1991-2000),
a comprehensive inventory of the artist’s dreams, Shaw continues
with Oism his critico-hallucinatory investigation of American culture
and its value systems. The artist draws inspiration from a vernacular,
“debased” culture which lies below categories established
by art history: amateur paintings salvaged from thrift stores, ritual
cult objects, students’ works, film posters, etc.
These objects are inscribed within a network of multiple significations
that continually undermine the symbolic authority of the work of art.
Simultaneously aggregates of heterogeneous sources, moments from a personal
history and fragments of a collective cultural and political history,
Shaw’s works impose themselves on the spectator like a mirage, inviting
him/her to reconstruct a fragmentary scenario and question their ideological
basis.
JIM SHAW
He was born in 1952 in Midland, Michigan. He lives in Los Angeles.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
THE DONNER PARTY, 2003
Courtesy Art & Public - Pierre Huber, Geneva
THE GOODMAN IMAGE FILE AND STUDY, 2002
Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris
PAINTINGS FOUND IN O-IST THRIFT STORES, 2002
Courtesy of the artist & Metro Pictures Gallery, New York
THE RITE OF THE 360 DEGREES, 2002
Collection Eric Decelle
Courtesy Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris
INITIATION RITUAL OF THE 360 DEGREES, 2002
video, 11 min
Collection Eric Decelle
Courtesy Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris
THE LAND OF THE OCTOPUS # 1, 2002
oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist & Patrick Painter Gallery, Inc., Los Angeles
THE LAND OF THE OCTOPUS #2, 2003
oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist & Patrick Painter Gallery, Inc., Los Angeles
THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME #1, 2002
oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist & Patrick Painter Gallery, Inc., Los Angeles
THE BIRTH OF A NOTION #1, 2003
oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist & Patrick Painter Gallery, Inc., Los Angeles
KILL YOUR DARLINGS #4, 2003
oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris
O-IST MOVIE STILLS, 2003
28 photographs by Julian Hoeber & Jim Shaw
costumes by Alexis Teplin & Karin Gulbran
Courtesy of the artist
O-IST STUDENT PAINTINGS / DREAM OBJECTS, 2000
15 paintings, oil on canvas
Courtesy of the artist, Metro Pictures Gallery, New York & Galerie
Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne
O-IST SPOT ILLUSTRATIONS, 2000
8 laser prints
Courtesy of the artist
O-IST SCRIBBLE DRAWINGS, 2000
12 drawings, pencil on paper
Courtesy of the artist & Galerie Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne
UNTITLED, 2004
by Malcom O
Courtesy of the artist