Adam Pendleton on Robert Rauschenberg

Adam Pendleton

An image of a gesture, or a gesture of an image. In Luxer (Urban Bourbon) and Twister (Urban Bourbon), silkscreen prints are unsettled by the residual gestures beneath them: a splatter of pooled acrylic, a brushed ground. Accidents accumulate. These events complicate surface, making a problem of surface, or making surface into a problem. The prints struggle to adhere. An image as a gesture, or a gesture as an image. There is reflection, too; mirrored aluminum, tinted and slightly warped, in which one can catch a glimpse of one’s own foggy face, “behind” the surface. Surface recedes into reflective depths, and at the same time issues forth as the accumulated ink of prints pulled quickly, leaving bubbles and cuts in the image. In Luxer, a domestic interior, lampshade and wallpaper, a whimsical pattern, children playing musical instruments. In Twister, an exploded domestic architectonics: wood fencing, ironwork, roofs, walls, the view from a window. These are photographs, perhaps from a personal collection, but they do not readily catalog experiences. The encounters occur on the surface. Are we outside or inside the image?