Monumental Ghostly Heights

cyanide Multimedia Show of New Work by Bradford Kessler

July-August 2010

Bradford Kessler, born in Kansas USA, 1982, currently lives and works in Beijing. Born and raised on the white bread of America, filled with dreams of Disneyland and rapid-flash images of cartoons and television, he finds himself immersed in China's nascent art community. Kessler's approach to creating art work is based on transmitting conceptual ideas. He creates art objects, projects and videos referencing conspiracy, movies, drugs, suicide and philosophy, which attempt to explain a kind of mythology of his generation. Art is meant to be shared, it is an experience. An art work itself is a language, it is a means of communication. Through the concepts of his works, Kessler introduces a new language, diction, syntax to Beijing's art community, which is exactly what constitutes the raw creative environment that defines the evolving character of Beijing.

Kessler describes his inspiration for Monumental Ghostly Heights as a process of gathering information and visual ideas all related to incidents of dreaming and escape, both real and metaphysical. The artworks, better described as objects or products, displayed are mere byproducts or selected physical realizations of a thousand fleeting thoughts, images, questions and inspirational moments. Consisting of blueprints splattered with bat blood, his K(O) Phasor Safari Series of pretend B-Flick movie posters recreate tranquilized visions of technological horror and mass parapsychological events. Projectiles for Riding a Single Etermal Wave is a set of abstract fiberglass sculptures coated in surfwax which are modeled from the molecular structure of cyanide and project from his futuristic replica of the portable M29 'Davy Crockett' nuclear weapon system tested by the American military during the Korean War. Kessler imagines these over sized cyanide molecules as props like the giant tarantulas wreaking havoc over chaotic crowds of a 1950's Sci-Fi Horror movie. His research refers to the prophetic visions and suicide missions of the UFO cult Heaven's Gate and the Utopian People's Temple. An underlying thread of his works is the desire to escape humanness and discover what Walt Disney would call a "magic kingdom." This search of a dream and the suspension of disbelief that supports it are evidence of a generation attempting to define and maintain their eternal youth. Kessler represents a generation of young artists rapidly surfing the internet, unafraid of pioneering new conceptual territories, and willing to dramatically expose themselves in the name of expression and creativity.

Exhibition Artwork