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Walking into sculptor David J. Merritt’s studio is like walking into a gathering of friends and strangers. There are heads everywhere, humorous, personal, and impetuous. Merritt works quickly, in the moment. Unfired clay, tape, and foam capture his gestures and impulsivity. Dozens of colorful faces might still be moving under invisible hands. Their absurd features and neon and primary colors obviously militate against life-likeness and yet the pieces access personality. As I looked at the uncanny array, I had the notion that I would not be surprised if one or more should start to speak or quiver. |
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“Although it is atypically non- figurative, the idol’s various orifices nevertheless indicate multiple physiologies. These allusions to the body resist definition of the piece’s gender, which Merritt circumvents by allowing his idol to live in a “pre- language” state.”
David J. Merritt Modern Idol, (Center) Janus, 2010. Unfired clay and bronze spray paint, 10 x 12 x 8 in.; klean klay, paper, paint, and wood, 24 x 24 x 6 in. Installation view from “An Archeology” exhibit at 50 White Street, New York. Courtesy of the artist.
David J. Merritt, Modern Idol (Detail), 2010. Unfired clay and bronze spray paint, 10 x 12 x 8 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Modern Idol
Kate Meng Brassel
Walking into sculptor David J. Merritt’s studio is like walking into a gathering of friends and strangers. There are heads everywhere, humorous, personal, and impetuous. Merritt works quickly, in the moment. Unfired clay, tape, and foam capture his gestures and impulsivity. Dozens of colorful faces might still be moving under invisible hands. Their absurd features and neon and primary colors obviously militate against life-likeness and yet the pieces access personality. As I looked at the uncanny array, I had the notion that I would not be surprised if one or more should start to speak or quiver.
Radiating from the corner, Modern Idol, a loaf-sized mass of bronze clay, is striking in the context of Merritt’s larger corpus and marks a new trajectory for his sculpture. Although it is atypically non- figurative, the idol’s various orifices nevertheless indicate multiple physiologies. These allusions to the body resist definition of the piece’s gender, which Merritt circumvents by allowing his idol to live in a “pre- language” state. Similarly, the idol’s unfired clay and bronze spray paint oppose each other: the one insists on mutability while the other alludes to monumentality. Malleability and the possibility of future change define the composition of Merritt’s idol for the modern era. Merritt has displayed this Modern Idol in multiple settings. The arresting installation shown here was on display at Merritt’s 2010 exhibition “An Archaeology,” presented by NYU Steinhardt in Tribeca. The space’s high glass ceiling and large off-center pillar inspired this particular placement of Modern Idol in front of another piece entitled Janus, which posed as “an accomplice,” Merritt tells us. An Alice-in-Wonderland moment occurs as the viewer stares down through the vast space at the diminutive idol and the miniature door of Janus, the archaic two-faced god of future and past, of war and peace. The composition is loaded with quiet irony: the small size of the monuments effects a permanent respectful stance from the viewer by maintaining a perspective of distance; their small size acts simultaneously as a diminishment of their authority.
David J. Merritt has an outdoor sculpture on view at Denniston Hill in Woodridge, NY. He will also be participating in a two-person show with G. William Webb in Catskill, NY, which will open on June 25, 2011. Merritt will also participate in “Yin Yang Music,” curated by Amy Granat at Non-Objectif Sud in Tulette, France opening July 2, 2011.
