Chris Esposito continues his exploration into the duality of painting and sculpture through material combinations that create a formal language. Featuring a series of paintings and sculptural installation, Esposito questions our orientation by making objects function like beacons to navigate uncertain times. Through a process of reclamation and reuse that is characteristic of the artist, Esposito produces sculptural beacons from elements cast off or reclaimed from other projects – lashed, stretched, and bound – into objects made for conceptual survival amidst political chaos. Esposito suggests a reality where we gain a firm grasp on the immediate only to find it used up, a husk of what we expected. By turning detritus into an iconic journey away from our present locale, Esposito materializes the experience of moving towards a future that is forever unknowable.
Meet Chris Esposito, A New York Native Feeling A Bit Lost These Days
“I do feel kinda lost in the world, the NYC I grew up in and cherished is gone, I can accept change, but I obviously have a few problems with it. I am somewhat obstinate.”
The values and culture that he embraced growing up: DIY, possibility, and a sense of what it means to be a New Yorker have changed with the influx of big box stores, cell phones and Esposito’s art process engages with this current state, affected by technology, socio-economic disparity, the Trump Era and many other aspects of everyday life.
“I’m sure all generations before me have had this feeling of loss or a lack of control over change . In some instances, the bureaucracy of it reminds me of the film Brazil by Terry Gilliam. The reality TV and social media world really bothers me. In one sense the dissemination of readily available information is astounding, but a fair amount of it is misconceived, misdirected and incorrect, think about some of these internet news sites that will publish anything. The internet and computers are great tools but so’s my cordless drill and paint brush.”
This exploration of the milieu coupled with a process contingent on making work from as many disparate materials as possible, while trying to maintain coherence, has the artist in a state of internal and/or existential conflict.
The process of reclamation and reuse in Esposito’s work is inherently political. Just as society restricts or dictates our behaviors, Esposito creates restrictions concerning materials in his process. Bothered by waste, consumerism, and capitalist culture Esposito tries to be as sustainable as possible.
In his latest exhibition for Amos Eno Gallery, Off Course, Esposito wants the audience to walk away questioning things, whether they get it or not isn’t the point. “Sometimes I not sure if I get it and it’s my work. I often seem to find my works meaning can morph, transform or turn on itself which is ok.” His ideas for this body of work came from hitting a wall, a crossroad, a sense of not being quite sure about anything, and a sure belief he wasn’t the only one feeling disenfranchised.
Conceptually and materially Off Course follows Elemental Ground, an exhibition of works that confronted space with barriers, forms, and interventions of space. With a serial format and conceptual undercurrent throughout his work, Off Course intervenes and asks how to navigate. “What are we doing in this world? Are we making a better place or destroying it? As an artist I have to be uncomfortable in order to move forward, but as a human being I need some form of stasis in my life to keep from going mad.”
