Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua at LMCC/Workspace

mattjessriver.jpg


mattjessdiver.jpg


MattJessoil.jpg


I apologize, but I have no precise details on these images, although I know that the large piece at the top reflects Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua's continued fascination with Roosevelt Island. I believe the figure in the center of the second photograph represents an underwater diver, and the "drawing" at the bottom is a reference to the first successful American oil well.

I hardly know what to write about this magic duo. Beginning several years ago, I stumbled across the work first of one, then the other and eventually the projects they had done together. Very soon I was pursuing more than stumbling, but everything they do is still almost as baffling as when I first found it - only more masterful, and more seductive.

This past weekend we visited their temporary studio in 120 Broadway, part of a program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). They had obviously cleaned up a lot for the official reception, but even what they had toyed around with and left pinned to the walls or lying on the windowsills (pre-studies?) could have kept me there most of the evening.

The press release for last weekend's event can barely begin to describe what you see above:

Bercowetz/Bua's work crosses disciplines and actively engages the community. Recently, it has been an investigation into the acts of youth deviance, social escapism, dissidence, utopian architecture and mobility. Often blurring the lines between work, play, manhood and boyhood. The process is elastic--crossing genres, mixing materials, and collaborating with others. The projects are often interactive with an exterior and interior. The subject matter is vast, experiential and vaguely didactic. Reality and fantasy collide--realistic situations are pushed to a fantasy level and that fantasy is treated as serious as real life.

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Published on April 28, 2005 5:41 PM.

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