This exhibit, which I crafted for my these exhibition, continued my general snark with institution itself while also attempting to present the whole of my personal vocabulary up to that point in a kind of retail structure. The 2008 financial crisis was saying heavy on the moment, and I thought perhaps of inverting a normal retail situation where it appears to be an empty store when you first enter, but then by 'touching the art' you can open these displays and reveal a very dense inventory hiding on the inside. The 'inventory' itself was a real kitchen sink situation. I threw pretty much every reference and building technique I had developed inside in a fairly unfiltered and intuitive way. The whole of all these things painted a picture of a certain panic of the moment both in the world, and with me personally. I loved the open/closed operation of this show. It really did everything I wanted an art exhibit to do, it played with the people who came to see it. In the center here that cabinet has a sign I had custom made for the show, showing the intersection of wall st. and main st. People wouldn't shut up about that around this time.This was a portrait of a character I though of as embodying the corruption of that moment in time, I wanted to depict him as young and old, an obviously evil smiling sleezebag bisected by a monotone slab.The posters in this rack were made of photographs of my parents in my childhood home. I felt like these pictures documenting where I came from grounded a lot of imagery in the show: Grimey, Exuberant, Chaotic, Desperate
