Every Worm Deserves a Mansion (2018-2020)

~ virtua1 insta11ati0n ~

Virtual version of the Everyworm Deserves a Mansion installation. Two floating sand walls with three projections on them. The sand walls are framed with studded metal diamond. The floor and ceiling is light green, painted in photoshop digitally.
Abstract sculpture called 'Hyper' that is 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. Materials are Diamond plate metal made of clay, concrete, and sand. Two sides of a hyper cube are covered in sand. Each side has 3 layers and there are silver painted clay diamonds along the edges. There are bow ties made of sand, cut in half at the corners of these sides. The sides, one horizontal, and one standing vertically, are resting on a blobby concrete base. A verticle line of sand raises from the base behind the sides to create the shape of a square in the air when viewed from a certain perspective. There is a full sand bow at the of this line. Made in 2018.
Sculpture called 'Atomic Stink Bomb Concrete' that is 3.5 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Materals are sand, concrete, and tin sheeting. The form is a hybrid of a butt and a mushroom cloud. The top of the cloud to look like a butt. It is made out of sand with hand cut metal diamons embedded in the sand. The base and stem of the cloud comes out of the bottom of the butt and is made of concrete. Made in 2018.
A sculpture called 'Mutant Dew'. It is a concrete mound about 3 feet tall with a hole in the middle. Two legs are coming out the hole, sticking straight in the air, 6 feet high, as though someone is falling into it. The legs have light green pants that have neon green patches on them. The feet have white shoes that have laces, soles, and bows made of sand. THe patches on the pants also have stitches made of sand. Made in 2018.
A sculpture called 'Worm' that is 4 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide. It is a squiggly worm made oc conrete emerging to stand from a concrete mound. The worm has rings of sand on it that also have tin metal diamons embedded in the sand, similar to the Atomic Stink Bomb statue. Made in 2018.
This gif is translucent to imitate a projection of a website. It is shaped like a fat letter T, to reference smoke from a fire, and placed higher on the wall of the virtual gallery above another sculpture that references a campfire. The animation shows a green fire at the bottom of the T shape, and a chocolate chip cookie zooming in and out like a space warp. It is part of the installation called 'A Wrinkle in the Binky' made in 2020.
An abstract sculpture that is another part of the 'A Wrinkle in the Binky' installation that is 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide. It blends a segment from a hyprcube with the form of a camp fire. It has 8 legs made of sand that come to a point at the top. The top and part of the legs are covered by the same pants that are in the Every Worm Deserves a Mansion video and the 'Mutant Dew' sculpture (they were re-used multple times). They are draped in a way to suggest both flames and drying pants on a rack. This sculpture is placed underneath the smoke-like projection. The form and colors of the pants connect to the green fire in the smoke.
The last sculpture in the 'A Wrinkle in the Binky' installation. The base is made of the two white shoes with sand laces that were in the Every Worm Deserves a Mansion video and mutant dew sculpture. The feet are flat on the ground and have sand legs coming out of them that end at the knee. Instead of knees there is a flat layer like a table shape, but the table top is shaped like two feet and covered in sand. There is also an indentation on the top of these flat sand feet that holds a white computer trackpad. The legs have white sweat socks with tin metal diamonds decorating them similar to the Worm and Atomic Stink Bomb sculpture. The white touchpad was used to interact with the website that is projected as the smoke.


*Song in video by Human Lassie (Chris Jones, Mitch Oliver, and Cookie Brunel).

WRITING

Beside a wall of sand, a Mountain Dew-patched character of confusing age tells bad jokes to no one. An audience of sculptures stands silently; a giant worm, an effigy to stink bombs, and a puzzle from the 123rd dimension. These statues are bodily in form, idolized jokes constructed from the infrastructural detritus of a city buried by a desert. The metal is reused, concrete is rotten, and sand is hot and mutant. String encrusted by this sand tries to stand and lift. Bows mark points of inter-dimensional intersections. Cookie marks the spot. Mom is missed.

In the distance, a visible suspension of carbon can be seen coming from a camp. Its fire is still glowing but no one’s sure how long it’s been here. There are traces of human and baby energy left to be decoded; a green screened turtleneck, a 4:3 mushroom cloud, and keyframed soft marble car seats. Touching the sand here, it’s ticklish and trying its best not to tell a secret. The fire betrays this intention, emitting a digital language translated through smoke. Fuzzy and looping narrators act as guides through puzzles in the plume. Every Worm Deserves a Mansion is a prediction and a recounting of a sugar-fuelled ascent to the nth dimension.
Baby Wave Babbi-festo (2018):

Screenshot of computer animated Norman Reedus from the video game Death Stranding, looking at the sky naked and cryin while hugging a white baby
Interview with Brennan Kelly (2019):

Screenshot from Every worm deserves a mantion video. Character wearing green patched pants and mountain dew shirt in a sand room telling a story while making a funny face at the camera.
AKIMBO Hit List (2020):

Screenshot from Every worm deserves a mantion video. Character wearing green patched pants and mountain dew shirt in a sand room is leaning on a concrete mound and grinning as if telling a stupid joke to the camera.

INSTALLATIONS IRL

The New Gallery, 2020.
Calgary, AB, Canada.
Video projection on left wall of Every worm deserves a mansion video, atomic stink bomb sculpture in foreground, and worm sculpture near 'a wrinkle in the binky' installation in background (smoke, fire and feet with trackpad sculptures. There are also 2 neon green bean bag stumps placed near the trackpad sculpture.
Exhibition Text by Chris Jones:

Physical copies of the exhibition text print outs. Trifold newsprint with minial black text in both Enlgish and Chinese characters.
Digital Catalog :

Cover image of the digital catalog of the exhibition.
Krannert Art Museum, 2018.
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, IL, USA.
Two 12 feet tall, mirrored video projections of every worm deserves a mansion in the right corner of large museum gallery with grey walls. Dimly lit sculptures include worm, atomic stink bomb, mutant dew, and hyper.
Arcade Contemporary Art Projects, 2019.
Webster University, St. Louis, IL. USA.
Installation for group show 'see and wait'.
Curated by Martin Lang.
Two 3 feet tall, mirrored video projections of every worm deserves a mansion in the right corner of a white room. Two people laying in front the video. They are laying on a large 8 foot wide green screen that is stuffed like a giant body pillow. Severy other strangely shaped green body pillows are also laying with the people.
The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Canada Council for the Arts Logo

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