ARTISTS
Edward Lightner at L2kontemporary
May 27 - June 24, 2006 at L2kontemporary, Downtown In the catalogue essay for 鈥淧ay Your Respects to the Vultures,鈥� Edward Lightner鈥檚 exhibition of
Margarita Nieto / ArtScene
01 Jun, 2006
May 27 - June 24, 2006 at L2kontemporary, Downtown
In the catalogue essay for 鈥淧ay Your Respects to the Vultures,鈥� Edward Lightner鈥檚 exhibition of twelve star-shaped paintings, poet and catalogue essayist Lisa Radon tells us that the show鈥檚 title is the 鈥渇irst half of a line from a Coil song (鈥淎methyst Deceivers鈥�.)鈥� The line continues: 鈥淧ay your respects to the vultures, for they are your future.鈥� The tone of doom is quite direct with the essayist, but left unsaid by the artist. Yet what Lightner has effectively accomplished in this show is a revelation of that future.
These star-shaped paintings, these 鈥渟uper stars,鈥� are charged with the significations that Lightner draws from two sources: porn stars and nuclear explosions. The titles themselves sound like porn screen names--鈥淩omeo Castle, 鈥� 鈥淢att Sizemore,鈥� 鈥淐ameron Fox,鈥� 鈥淛eff Stryker,鈥� 鈥淜en Ryker,鈥� 鈥淣ick Savage,鈥� and 鈥淒akota Redwing,鈥� who with 鈥淧riscilla Plumbbob,鈥� is the other female. In Lightner鈥檚 vision, these deadly stars form a constellation fraught with the impending disasters of our time.
Inspired by Michael Light鈥檚 2003 book, 鈥�100 Suns,鈥� featuring images of one hundred photographs of nuclear explosions drawn from the Los Alamos Archives, these works embody the dazzling beauty of those 鈥�100 Suns.鈥� The phrase is a reference that Manhattan Project head J. Robert Oppenheimer quoted from the ancient Vedic text, the 鈥淏hagavad Gita,鈥� to describe the first nuclear explosions in New Mexico: 鈥淚f the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth. . .That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one. . .I am become death, the destroyer of the worlds.鈥� Words and images of a glorious horror, which Light is quoted as saying were 鈥�. . .so loaded (that) in a sense, they鈥檙e pornographic,鈥� an on-the-mark statement, since the explosions themselves bore names that turn out to sound like porn star names: 鈥淒akota Redwing鈥� was in fact the name of one such nuclear explosion.
These references to the 鈥渟exy鈥� power of military force and the brilliant apocalyptic vision engendered by these explosions serve as the groundwork that Lightner explores. Cropping and enlarging the source image and removing color graduations, he draws a super glossy sheen as Radon states, from the punk zine culture and the color separations of Warhol鈥檚 silkscreens. And on the edges of each star he inscribes a biblical quotation taken from 鈥淭he Book of Revelations (The Apocalypse According to St. John).鈥� So, the golden yellow and white-bright 鈥淧riscilla Plumbob鈥� carries this warning: 鈥滿en will desire to die, and death will flee from them.鈥� 鈥淜en Ryker,鈥� reddish, pink and gold, with a surface of curvilinear forms and lines, reminds us: 鈥淭he fifth angel sounded: to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.鈥� 鈥淛eff Stryker,鈥� whose dark blue and pale blue surface is covered with delicate curvilinear lines, bears this double-edged warning: 鈥淭ake it and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.鈥� We are invited to ponder whether those are phallic images or simply abstract curvilinear forms on the surface of these paintings.
This visual and verbal interplay, drawing from and conflating the venerated and ancient Order of Things (Vedic and Christian texts) and the hip world (Coil), dominate our society, the artist seems to say, and serve as the constant in Lightner鈥檚 work. No simple irony here. Rather a deep-seated awareness of the dangerous games we face: nuclear weapons run amok (Iran, North Korea, India and our alliance with her), epidemics (AIDS and its rampant uncontrolled course of destruction, of which Lightner, who is HIV positive, is only too aware), global warming, genocide, and unbridled powers waging senseless wars. Like his constellation of portentous stars with their contradictory messages of decadent beauty and annihilation: you are drawn to look, but it鈥檚 a weight to bear. Lightner鈥檚 is an apocalyptic vision of falling stars which reminds us that we are indeed 鈥減aying our respect to the vultures which are our future.鈥�
In the catalogue essay for 鈥淧ay Your Respects to the Vultures,鈥� Edward Lightner鈥檚 exhibition of twelve star-shaped paintings, poet and catalogue essayist Lisa Radon tells us that the show鈥檚 title is the 鈥渇irst half of a line from a Coil song (鈥淎methyst Deceivers鈥�.)鈥� The line continues: 鈥淧ay your respects to the vultures, for they are your future.鈥� The tone of doom is quite direct with the essayist, but left unsaid by the artist. Yet what Lightner has effectively accomplished in this show is a revelation of that future.
These star-shaped paintings, these 鈥渟uper stars,鈥� are charged with the significations that Lightner draws from two sources: porn stars and nuclear explosions. The titles themselves sound like porn screen names--鈥淩omeo Castle, 鈥� 鈥淢att Sizemore,鈥� 鈥淐ameron Fox,鈥� 鈥淛eff Stryker,鈥� 鈥淜en Ryker,鈥� 鈥淣ick Savage,鈥� and 鈥淒akota Redwing,鈥� who with 鈥淧riscilla Plumbbob,鈥� is the other female. In Lightner鈥檚 vision, these deadly stars form a constellation fraught with the impending disasters of our time.
Inspired by Michael Light鈥檚 2003 book, 鈥�100 Suns,鈥� featuring images of one hundred photographs of nuclear explosions drawn from the Los Alamos Archives, these works embody the dazzling beauty of those 鈥�100 Suns.鈥� The phrase is a reference that Manhattan Project head J. Robert Oppenheimer quoted from the ancient Vedic text, the 鈥淏hagavad Gita,鈥� to describe the first nuclear explosions in New Mexico: 鈥淚f the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst forth. . .That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one. . .I am become death, the destroyer of the worlds.鈥� Words and images of a glorious horror, which Light is quoted as saying were 鈥�. . .so loaded (that) in a sense, they鈥檙e pornographic,鈥� an on-the-mark statement, since the explosions themselves bore names that turn out to sound like porn star names: 鈥淒akota Redwing鈥� was in fact the name of one such nuclear explosion.
These references to the 鈥渟exy鈥� power of military force and the brilliant apocalyptic vision engendered by these explosions serve as the groundwork that Lightner explores. Cropping and enlarging the source image and removing color graduations, he draws a super glossy sheen as Radon states, from the punk zine culture and the color separations of Warhol鈥檚 silkscreens. And on the edges of each star he inscribes a biblical quotation taken from 鈥淭he Book of Revelations (The Apocalypse According to St. John).鈥� So, the golden yellow and white-bright 鈥淧riscilla Plumbob鈥� carries this warning: 鈥滿en will desire to die, and death will flee from them.鈥� 鈥淜en Ryker,鈥� reddish, pink and gold, with a surface of curvilinear forms and lines, reminds us: 鈥淭he fifth angel sounded: to him was given the key to the bottomless pit.鈥� 鈥淛eff Stryker,鈥� whose dark blue and pale blue surface is covered with delicate curvilinear lines, bears this double-edged warning: 鈥淭ake it and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.鈥� We are invited to ponder whether those are phallic images or simply abstract curvilinear forms on the surface of these paintings.
This visual and verbal interplay, drawing from and conflating the venerated and ancient Order of Things (Vedic and Christian texts) and the hip world (Coil), dominate our society, the artist seems to say, and serve as the constant in Lightner鈥檚 work. No simple irony here. Rather a deep-seated awareness of the dangerous games we face: nuclear weapons run amok (Iran, North Korea, India and our alliance with her), epidemics (AIDS and its rampant uncontrolled course of destruction, of which Lightner, who is HIV positive, is only too aware), global warming, genocide, and unbridled powers waging senseless wars. Like his constellation of portentous stars with their contradictory messages of decadent beauty and annihilation: you are drawn to look, but it鈥檚 a weight to bear. Lightner鈥檚 is an apocalyptic vision of falling stars which reminds us that we are indeed 鈥減aying our respect to the vultures which are our future.鈥�
Edward Lightner, 鈥淒akota Redwing," 2005, acrylic/paper/
lettering on foam board and wood, 24 1/2 x 26 x 4 1/2".
Edward Lightner, 鈥淛eff Stryker," 2005, acrylic/paper/
lettering on foam board and wood, 39 x 41 x 5 1/2".
Edward Lightner, 鈥淢att Sizemore," 2005, acrylic/paper/
lettering on foam board and wood, 24 1/2 x 26 x 4 1/2".
