Neon art is taking us to LA this week, where you are invited to step into a neon cloud of political incorrectness and taboos: a set of truly impressive installations has been put up in the Hauser Wirth & Schimmel in LA for a retrospective on the American artist Jason Rhoades. The exhibition was inaugurated past Saturday and will be open until the 21st of May 2017.
With his work having been described as ‘politically charged’ and ‘darkly exuberant’, the Rhoades retrospective on the 10th year from his death comes at no inconsequential time: the display of political incorrectness and challenging of cultural conventions is momentous with respect to the tension that is spreading from the White House across the entire world.
With installations such as ‘My Madinah. In pursuit of my ermitage’ combining the likeness of a mosque with 240 neons of various terms for female genitalia, Rhoades crudely challenges our society’s hypocrisies and taboos, whilst mimicking the seductive vacuum of capitalist culture - in an equation in which repulsion is an essential, calculated element.
With a visual language that specifically uses the crudeness of neon in a strongly assertive criticism of our culture – thus exploiting the well-established parallel between neon and capitalism – the irrational pleasure one gets from the beauty of the floating neons works to further sharpen imagery’s provocativeness.
Perhaps we ought to create a floating neon cloud for its own end, or to express a less dark meaning, to allow us to enjoy it with less guilt.
Jason Rhoades | ‘Installations, 1994-2006’ | Hauser Wirth & Schimmel LA | 18 Feb – 21 May 2017 | Press Release