j u s t a n o t h e r m a r k e t m o p u p
an installation by
Andrew Ellis Johnson
just another market mop up is an installation that was first exhibited at the John and June Allcott Gallery at University of North Carolina
from December 29, 1999 through January 27, 2000. It will travel to CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY in June, 2001.
just another market mop up is an installation in which predator and prey, beneficence and need
conflate. Painting cloaks the
sculptural, yet the physical can not be denied. The material flees deception, yet illusion chases on. Ruse carrots and corn, rabbits and
ravens, are stratagems of confrontational, consumptive sharks and
piranhas. just another
market mop up
critiques what many consider the natural order, the conditions and consequences
of current international economic policies.
Poems written for promotion and elucidation follow:
j u s t a n o
t h e r
m a r k
e t
m o p
u p
supping before the escapade breaking fast with cuticles staid counting prey not yet born READY FOR A KILLING |
hoping
hunger carries through morn
beseeching
teeth to be but sharp
knowing
dawn ever dark
|
just another
market mop up consists of two fiberglass life-sized
sharks suspended from the ceiling.
One is painted to look like a giant ear of corn; the other is painted to
resemble a large carrot. Two
schools of piranhas glide into and flee from the sharksÕ open mouths. One school is painted to look like
crows craving corn; the other school is painted like rabbits racing for
repast. Each shark with its piranhas
hangs against a backdrop of panels covered in copper powder, treated with a
turquoise patina, evoking through color and material, the three elements of
earth, air and water that support these creatures and their ÒnaturalÓ order. An
industrial mop bucket with wringer, subtitled The Wishing Well, stands nearby, covered in the same copper
patina as the sharks and panels.
Foreign and domestic coins are strewn in the empty bucket with the U.S.
currency occupying the upper tier of the bucket. A CD sound loop saturates the
environment with the sound of the gallery being mopped and coins plunking into
water. The sounds are heard
backwards and forwards continuously throughout the installation, referring to
economic policies that result in reverse financial flow, with the investment of
first world countries in developing countries returning to its origin.