Chase Barney: Devil in the Details

April 6 - May 10, 2024

The Pit Palm Springs

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 The Pit is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Chicago based artist Chase Barney. The exhibition is on display from April 6 - May 10, 2024. Join us for an opening reception on April 6, 2024 from 5-7pm.

According to historical records, the proverbial wisdom in the 17th and 18th centuries saw god, not the devil, in the details. That is until Friedrich Nietzsche pronounced god dead and amended the original idiom to der teufel stecktim detail or the devil in the details. For Barney’s effervescent clay sculptures, god is nowhere because he is everywhere, and the devil predominates by hiding in plain sight. Teeming with allegorical creatures, garish consumer products, impish innuendos, and ebullient conjugations of sex and salvation, the oversized, technicolor vessels strain to contain their contents. 

Despite their playful palette, cartoonish caricatures, and profusion of flower petals, all is certainly not what it seems. A verdant garden relief with a frolicking unicorn and kneeling stag distract from a spiraling snake, a fallen apple, and an apocryphal scroll; just as a gleeful sun rising from a snow-capped mountain range momentarily blinds the viewer to the vulgarity of the seagull colony gorging and retching beneath; and a host of romantic red roses portends a fantasy other than the one the self-loving lyrics along the vessel’s neck confess.

As the narratives develop in the round, that which appears innocent, even kitsch, becomes increasingly distorted, subversive, and sinister. The transition between states is both uncanny and beguiling. This transmogrification mirrors the vessel’s construction and production. Handbuilt from earthen clay, the very same from which the first human’s rib was shaped, the vessels are then wrought by flames. Where the gloopy textures preserve the organic quality, the shiny finishes gloss over the cauterizing effects of firing. 

Barney’s preoccupation with the theological proceeds from his Mormon upbringing. Born and raised in Utah, he spent the first half of his life immersed in the moral fervor and cultural conservatism of Mormon orthodoxy. Aware from an early age of his queerness and its implications, Barney took to reimagining the domineering narratives that surrounded him, escaping into his own fantastical versions where righteous men, angels, and storybook characters were transformed by what he knew from films like The Wizard of Oz and brief visits to the nearby city of sin. 

This habit manifests in works like Literally Nonsense, which appears as an earnest homage to a playful nursery rhyme: a flower-bedecked milk cow floats before a crescent moon while a ceramic plate and silver spoon traverse across a violet star-filled firmament. Only upon closer examination do you notice the lit cigarette protruding from the cow’s lips and the dialogue bubbles disclosing sex position preferences hovering above the absconding dinnerware. 

While irreverent details and exaggerations of the visceral, anthropomorphic, and erotic possibilities of the material illuminate the palliative, disingenuous facade of cuteness that adorned the stories spoonfed to him in youth, the assiduous, almost tender attention paid to the discrete figures preserves the sense of wonder, grace, and sublime escape the narratives afforded him in turns along the way. The dynamic tension between celebration and condemnation lends the works their magnetism and infectious exuberance. 

“The indoctrination that took place during my childhood, that’s tough stuff. The bright palette, fun characters, and cute aesthetic are a way in. For you and for me,” explained Barney. “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

In this way, the sculptures function as physical vessels capable of holding water, cut flowers, and the viewer’s gaze but also as containers for onerous emotions, discordant memories, and salient stories of resilience and transformation. Within their brilliant exteriors is a space where fantasy and reality, virtue and depravity become like the god and devil in the old adage: subject to revision and inversion. –Tara Anne Dalbow 

The Pit Palm Springs is now open from Tuesday - Friday from 11am-5pm and Monday by Appointment.

For further information, please contact the gallery at info@the-pit.la.