On September 13 the David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles presented artist Matthew Brannon’s new series of work titled “Le Gant de Velours, Traversing the Fantasy, and the Thousand-Yard Stare (Disparate Subjects Happening Concurrently, 1977–1979).” The series is already being heralded as the marker of a new artistic era for Brannon. It will be available for viewing until October 19.
In the collection Brannon returns to his use of silkscreen prints, and photographic works to present the period of the seventies between 1977 to 1979. The focus on this period is due to it being the time frame his childhood essentially ended. He is very blunt about this fact, stating in the introductory canvas that in 1977 at the age of six he was molested. Something his parents were not aware of. After that, Brannon informs us about everything else that had happened that year and what will eventually occur in the artist’s life during that time. However, Brannon makes it clear that only the events of the time period presented are in focus.
Many motifs are repeated in the series, the most persistent being the movie Star Wars which was released at the start of the period the series focuses on. Although the movie is very fictional, the younger Brannon was able to connect the movie with the world around him. For example, one connection Brannon made is the similarity of the movie to the then war in Cambodia and Vietnam. To him pop culture and reality are no different. Thus, Brannon presents these two subjects as the same.
Every single print in the series references media from the 70s. It represents the media that Brannon would have seen in his youth. Many images are arranged to appear as if the viewer in the gallery is looking at the picture of a screen of a movie theater in the past. Each printed canvas is overloaded with imagery and information. The effect of this is dizzying as viewers are overwhelmed with what Brannon is presenting. Consequently, the viewer is transformed to be the younger Brannon, as the anxiety he felt then is held by the viewer.
