JEFF TRANCHELL
Linda March 19 – April 16, 2017
Opening Reception: March 19, 6-8 PM
Essex Flowers is proud to present Linda, its first solo exhibition of Jeffrey Tranchell. Named in appreciation of the very helpful accountant/sales person who made the partial roll of Pacifico Blue carpet available, its installation affects the entire gallery with the same cool hue. The effort not only creates a preferred setting, but also spotlights every surface of the gallery as active. It is a space in need of attention, in need of cleaning, in need of patching and painting and paying of utility bills. The color chosen embraces the not just the heteronomy of available products, but the most affordable.
Two small reliefs, maintaining subordinance to the room's hue, are fastened to gallery walls. One, Integrity, is named for the Behr paint color chip which best matched the carpet; and the other, Make Dust Forms, borrows the acronym of its medium, MDF (medium density fiberboard), a kind of identity-less matter, made of glue and wood fibers. Both works demand a color matched wall, and will rely on computerized color mixing technology again for reinstallation elsewhere.
Several other works meander through the expanding options in consumer goods such as cabinet knobs, drawer pulls, and decorative light bulbs as well as other home improvement materials like deck sealer and popcorn texture paint. Unlike their art supply store counterparts, these materials are offered using words like "decorative" unconflicted and without irony. They forfeit terms like "archival" for "lifetime guarantee," because how much does anything matter after you die?
