The 3 sculptures that make up this show reproduce 3 broken fragments of a giant laundry basket. The largest work, "Room", suggests a homemade animal trap ready to catch its victim, while its white interior presents a cozy nook complete with children’s doodles scrawled on its walls - drawings made by the artist’s 5-year-old daughter- suggesting an intimate place for freedom and play. "Handle", a gaping mouth displaying its teeth, consists of the half-broken handle of the basket, precariously balanced atop a column of sponges reminiscent of the repetitive and tedious labor implied in daily life. "Corner" is a corner section of the basket that in order to remain upright has to tenaciously wrap around a heavy piece of lumber by a rope made out of t-shirts’ collars. Flaunting what’s normally hidden, the care instruction and brand labels take the spotlight in an effort to bring together privacy and care with politics and consumerism, a prevailing issue underlaying most of Partegàs’s works. Turning the anonymity and powerlessness of ordinary objects on their heads, these works combine aggressiveness and destruction with a sense of sensuality and care, inviting us to interrogate our established convictions of safety and progress.
Pure Joy, Marfa TX
June 19 - September 15, 2020
Room, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood 60” X 72” X 52” (drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)Room, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood 60” X 72” X 52” (drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)Room (Baskets. No Retention), 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood 60” X 72” X 52” (drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)Room, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, pencil, rope, wood stick, plywood 60” X 72” X 52” (drawings by Djuna Partegàs Pascher)
Handle, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges 31” X 58” X 15”Handle, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges 31” X 58” X 15”Handle, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, papercrete, bricks, sponges 31” X 58” X 15”Corner, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels 43” X 57” X 17”Corner, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels 43” X 57” X 17”Corner, 2020 Cardboard, cotton fabric, wood glue, Fast-Maché, acrylic paint, plywood, t-shirts, clothing labels 43” X 57” X 17”“No Retention” exhibition at Pure Joy, Marfa TX
