Incident / Resurrection
2013
neon, 7'h x 16'w x 1'd
Incident/Resurrection moves past the subjective specificity to a visual loop of pure narrative movement. It is the “shadow boxer” who initiates a battle with the self and encourages a contemplation of worldly order. It is a metaphor for self reflection, auto-criticism and reinvention.
In Incident/Resurrection, red neon lights illuminate a silhouetted pair –a sequence of flashing limbs recall an encounter between two figures: an incident. Inspired by a random act of violence the artist experienced in Brooklyn in 1987, the work transcribes a story about reason and the absence of reason. To Paine, when randomness like this occurs, it is a sudden interruption of the social order of things - a deeply troubling moment about human nature and the primal brain stem. These enigmatic aspects of control and the uncontrolled are prevalent questions in Paine's work.
Roxy Paine’s sculptures - specimen cases, machines and dendroids - utilize various informational platforms to examine the modern complications of translation - translation between technology and nature, the industrial and organic and, here, in his latest work, the private and the public. Continuing the trajectory of his early works, Where I'm At, Drug Ziggurat, Soap and Periscope, Incident/Resurrection is a strange collision between autobiographical information and statistical data. Here, Paine uses the public form of signage to translate a personal story.
