SCHQ Electric presents Darren Bader

15 Jun-21 Jun 2020

Overview

'The Tourist (Rome) and Proposals for Sculpture #3.95, Sculpture #3.985, Sculpture #4, (Sculpture #5,) and Sculpture #7' View online: https://www.sadiecoles.com/video Sharing its title with a 2010 Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie film, The Tourist (Rome) considers sculptural possibilities for the Eternal City. The video opens with shaky, silent footage from the Depp-Jolie film’s press conference, for which Bader suggests subtitled musings. Candid, tongue-in-cheek absurdism continues from there, as the video travels to various Roman sites, repurposing them for “timely” sculptural considerations. Using a pared-down videographic aesthetic, Bader frames landmarks in proximity to improbabilities and improvisations. (For example, viewers are invited to contribute their polar fleece wear to fill (and thereby absorb) the waters of the Trevi Fountain.) As is his wont, Bader piles on juxtapositions, material banalities, and flights of fancy, this time in an homage to a shared cultural inheritance and beloved tourist center.