6/14/09

5. Two Brothers Beauty Supply, Eddy and Westminster Sts.


Benton Moss and Alyssa Spry

bric-a-brac

mixed media sculpture

About the Work

How do we relate to the objects in our lives? How have we come to define ourselves by our Stuff? How do objects-- the sale of objects, the advertisement of objects, the accumulation of objects-- contribute to a collision of public and private space? We are a culture of excess. The check out line of your local CVS is all the proof you need: Pez dispensers, commemorative coins, erasers shaped like cartoon characters, exfoliating shower gloves, chips clips…excessive stuff, excessive waste, excessive unnecessity. The myriad knick-knacks and mildly useful paraphernalia that crowd our public landscape are constantly finding their way into our kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms. Our private spaces become a collection of objects, the objects themselves becoming an integral part of the architecture of our lives. And as advertisers manipulate and exploit aspects of our intimate, personal lives in an effort to sell us their products, private space (where we keep the objects) is vaulted into the public arena where more objects vie for our attention.

About the Artists

Alyssa Spry and Benton Moss have been distracting each other from more important work since 2001. They have shown work together and separately in Chicago, Memphis, New York, Los Angeles and New Hampshire. Spry has a visual and performing arts background with a BFA in figurative theater from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Moss is currently finishing a fine arts degree at the University of Memphis.

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