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Jack Pierson

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France

Jack Pierson, Untitled (Pola Negri) (2010)

For his fifth solo show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Jack Pierson presents new word sculptures, drawings and photographs. Intermixing imagery from previous works such as drawings of word pieces with depictions of a former movie star and a dead Roman beauty, he creates a coherent show in which his works resonate thematically, conceptually and formally, establishing a contemplative, highly wistful meditation on work, creation and the perils of time.

Golden Years (2010)

One of Pierson’s trademark word sculptures spells out ‘Golden Years’ (Golden Years, 2010). Often a reference to the glory days of the past or the later years in one’s life, ‘golden years’ might also allude to David Bowie’s 1975 song of the same title about someone whose career has waned and whom Bowie exhorts to ‘get up’. The song, redolent of the glitter and late parties of the disco era, relates to another word piece by Pierson, which reads ‘The Night’ (The Night, 2010). Or perhaps the sign warns that as the sun sets on our golden years, darkness waits on the horizon.

Bowie’s song could particularly apply to the career of the silent film actress Pola Negri, who, because of the invention of talking pictures and the Great Depression, lost her popularity and fortune. In a series of photographs, Pierson uses a slide projector (rather than a computer) to superimpose imagery taken from his previous work onto Negri’s portrait. In Pola Negri-Dope (2010), for instance, the silhouette of Pierson’s word piece ‘Dope’ haunts Negri’s face. In such works, he literally projects his own history, and possibly his own emotional responses, onto the femme fatale. The vintage silver printing technique heightens the nostalgic quality of the image as it evokes lost time.

Pola Negri (2010)

Negri is also the subject of a detailed drawing executed in an art deco style. This work belongs to a series whose swirling celestial movement directly corresponds to the compositional elements of Negri’s portrait. In these works, forms fold, twist and spiral while merging into patterns evoking universal harmony. Their titles, such as A mirror between the ancient world and the Great Beyond (2010), support this interpretation of a periodic flow suspended in timeless stability.

In another collection of drawings, Pierson expands on the subject of Antinous, Roman emperor Hadrian’s young lover, whose name the artist spelled out in gold letters in 2008 in the work Antinous. After Antinous drowned in the Nile, the devastated emperor officially deified his beloved handsome youth and attempted to immortalize him by erecting temples, statues and even a whole city, Antinopolis, in his honour. Antinous’ image subsequently became one of the most prevalent in the art of the ancient world. Pierson has made progressively abstract drawings from photographs of a sculpture of Antinous, and, in so doing, has placed himself within the tradition of classical art while perpetuating the dimming remembrance of a beauty past and the enlightened emperor who loved him.

In this show, Pierson creates a time to reflect upon past work, and as drawings such as Glory (2010) or My sin (2010) point out, upon personal triumphs and failures. Bringing to the present figures like Pola Negri and Antinous, he reveals the redemptive power of imagery to keep alive that which once soared but now has been lost or forgotten. This is a time at the edge of night, where memories, like nearly faded stars, still glisten. For Pierson, these are the golden years.