Rollin Beamish — The Situation Is Excellent — installation view
Exhibitions/Rollin Beamish

Rollin Beamish

The Situation Is Excellent
Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT · September 2021

Eli Ridgway Gallery is pleased to present The Situation Is Excellent, the first showing of Rollin Beamish's new works. Across allegorical, figurative drawings and paintings, Beamish skewers the threatening outgrowths and ominous developments of contemporary society and politics — biting satire in the old tradition of political caricature.

The works belong to the artist's post-human series, on which he has worked since 2011. Where the earlier drawings mostly portrayed singular filmic characters as examples of certain aspects of societal reality, the five large, three-part "titans" — Necessitas, Nox, Arges, (Pseudo-)Moneta, and Saturn — are monstrous composite figures, wildly assembled from parts of varied real personalities and named after Roman deities. The goddess of the night, a cyclops, and the god of time who devoured his own children: such sinister figures stand in for the dark, uncanny underside of American society, found deep within its illustrious power centers. Numerous Latin phrases run through the works, generated with Google Translate yet carrying the "official" dignity and authority of a classical education.

Beamish's most surprising decision is to transform the gallery into a kind of waiting room. The viewer is asked to contemplate the works on the walls while simultaneously being prompted to sit and wait — for who or what is unclear. The waiting room of art, in which time stands still, becomes an allegory for the frenzied inertia that has seized our world: a permanent alteration in which everything nevertheless remains as it was. The title borrows a motto allegedly attributed to Mao Zedong — "Everything in the heavens is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."

WorksClick to enlarge
Nostrum
Nostrum
2013–21 · Graphite wall drawing, tablet computer, hook, towel · 58 × 15 in
tis I, the garbage scow of culture
tis I, the garbage scow of culture
2021 · Graphite and acrylic on canvas; graphite on wall · 75 × 37¼ in
post-human (Necessitas)
post-human (Necessitas)
2020 · Graphite, colored pencil, and ink on paper · 88¼ × 50¼ in
post-human (Barton Fink)
post-human (Barton Fink)
2014–18 · Graphite on paper, graphite on wall · 108 × 49 in
post-human (Pseudo-Moneta)
post-human (Pseudo-Moneta)
2021 · Graphite, acrylic, metal foil on canvas; gouache, acrylic, and ink on paper; graphite on wall · 100½ × 49 in
a forced wager precludes our better angels
a forced wager precludes our better angels
2020 · Graphite and acrylic on canvas · 30 × 22 in
forced wager
forced wager
2021 · Graphite and acrylic on canvas · 30 × 22 in
post-human (Arges)
post-human (Arges)
2021 · Gouache, acrylic, and ink on paper · 82 × 50½ in
post-human (Saturn)
post-human (Saturn)
2020 · Graphite, colored pencil, acrylic, and ink on paper · 83 × 25 in
post-human courtesy lounge
post-human courtesy lounge
2021 · Printed matter, found chair, custom table (wood, acrylic, and enamel), graphite on wall, and custom clock
A Nightly Dance of Nonce
A Nightly Dance of Nonce
2021 · Acrylic, ink, and metal foil on paper, hooks · 20 × 36 in
post-human (Nox)
post-human (Nox)
2020 · Graphite, acrylic, and glitter on paper · 66½ × 50½ in
post-human (Angelus-Novus)
post-human (Angelus-Novus)
2020 · Graphite on paper · 30 × 12 in
The Metaphysics of Bootstrapping
The Metaphysics of Bootstrapping
2020
Installation viewsEli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, MT, 2021
The Situation Is Excellent — installation view The Situation Is Excellent — installation view The Situation Is Excellent — installation view