By Katarina Hybenova
They say it was a cult, but to me it was a sci fi cult. And a lot of fun too…
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On Sunday night, I cautiously walked down the dark stairs to the basement of a house at 70 Jefferson St. in Bushwick. That’s where Airplane gallery is. Airplane is one of the newest galleries in Bushwick, opened in October 2011, and it’s run by artists Lars Kremenr, Liz Atzberger, and Kevin Curran.
I opened the door, and walked in. The neon light, basement esthetics, quirky art on the walls and on the floor, artist Julie Torres, wearing an army jumpsuit waving at me. I instantly thought of the hatch in the TV series Lost, or about the sci fi movie Alien. “Wow, pretty crazy,” I thought to myself. And that’s exactly what the four artists had in mind when they created a concept for the experimental art marathon and show called Cult Logic.
Liz Atzberger, Ryan Ford, Don Pedro Pablo and Julie Torres, met up at Airplane gallery on Friday midnight. Each of them being a unique individual artists with a distinctive work, they decided to create an installation throughout 3 days, and show it in a one night exhibition only. …and they chose cult as the theme.
I was really curious how did each of these artists play with the theme of cult. I could easily imagine Don Pedro Pablo or Ryan Ford creating some cult objects, but I was really curious about abstract painter Julie Torres or Liz Atzberger who uses bright materials a lot.
The results were really cool!
Ryan Ford created some kind of a weird altar balancing on pyramid with creepy eyes. On the altar there was a bunch of strange cult objects from a gold cassette to a cross. I suspect Ryan of being a really hyperactive artist who just can’t stop painting or sculpting quirky funny objects. Ryan also painted a wall.
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Don Pablo Pedro created a praying corner where you could go down on your knees and pray to the crazy cult of weird figures with multiple eyes and limbs. I believe that a role of a cult leader suits Pedro really well.
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Julie Torres made a wall using ropes, plastic bags and …her paintings. Really interesting shift in the works of this abstract cult member…. In addition she thoughtlessly collected envelopes, paper bags and papers, pinned them onto a wall and painted spots on them…. This part of her work strongly reminded me of the current exhibition of Damien Hirst in 11 Gagosian galleries all around the world, showing, well, spot paintings. I inquired about a potential connection of cult logic and Damien Hirts, but she said the resemblance must be purely incidental. Right… 😉
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Liz Atzberger is probably the tiniest of all the Bushwick artists, however after seeing her work, I believe she could start her own cult and be the leader of it. Yup. She created an abstract cult object to pray on using multitude of materials and colors.
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Btw, I was also lucky enough to catch a comedian duo Ross Moreno and Justin Cooper performing, doing lame magic tricks, and taking off their clothes…
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Airplane, 70 Jefferson St, Cult Logic on view for the upcoming two Sundays by appointment.