Description
June 12, 2010 – July 31, 2010Don't Try Too Hard
Matthew Waldbillig
Opening Reception:
June 12th, 2010 6 - 9pm
RVCA l VASF Gallery
Gallery Hours 11:30am to 7pm daily
1485 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 701 - 7822
Matthew Waldbillig's inspirations come from being a rule breaker and an instigator of bad behavior. With a long history in DIY and punk philosophy he looks to contradict and subvert everything around him for his own amusement. His work is based around finding hierarchies in the world surrounding him and then subverting them. Places such as men's club, military, and speakeasies are exploited for their exclusive atmosphere to create a setting for interactions. He devises tactics that show the structural flaws to the rules and regulations power structures impose on their members, and expresses those instabilities in form of sculpture, performance, video, installation, and drawings.
Holding true to this philosophy in Don't Try Too Hard Waldbillig takes the space a traditional art and manipulates it into of set for interaction. Pairing his defying nature with that of the art institution he divides the space into two opposite realms. This separation create front and back spaces examine front room (legit) and back room (illicit) activities. The structure of the installation is established through an assemblage of inexpensive materials creating a space of social interaction. They do not actually recreate the space but are just the illusion of the original, there to remind us of what they represent. A space that was once based on exclusivity is now opened to anyone.
In line with Erving Goffman's theory of Dramaturgy the gallery is divided into two classes, the front room where everything is prim and proper, and the back room where his become interesting and fucked up. Goffman defines social spaces in everyday life to the parallel world of fictional characters in stage productions. Dramaturgical perspective is one of several sociological paradigms separated from other sociological theories because it does not examine the cause of human behavior but the context. Waldbillig constructs an installation based around these ideas, using the dynamic between the front/back room to incite different situations with each atmosphere. Within rooms he creates a set that resemble different forms of private and public spaces. These show the contrast in the two different environments, one that holds to the traditions of art and display and another that is a fictional space, both ready for interaction.
Matthew Waldbillig (b.1981) is current a San Francisco transplant from the great mid-west city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he completed his BFA at the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 2004. After relocating for a short period in Brooklyn, New York he moved back to Cincinnati where he was one of the seven co-curators at the independent art space Publico (2003-2008). He went on to complete his MFA in sculpture at California College of the Arts in 2010, where he was nominated and received several distinguished awards, including All College Honors. Waldbillig has completed projects with artists such as Mark Dion, and collaborated with Kai Althoff on the play/social experiment Skillät Hans. His work has exhibited around the country, including recent shows at RVCA Haight/Ashbury and Adobe Books in San Francisco, CA, Blankspace in Oakland, CA, the Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and Vox Populi in Philadelphia PA.
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