James Parlin
Sculpture
March 2 - April 7

"My main interest in life is the people around me and my relationship with them. [These sculptures are from a] series of . . . small scale sketches of my family, friends, colleagues, casual acquaintances, pets, and me. They deal, varyingly and in no particular order with: eating disorders, dependency, rage, intimacy, poor judgment, aging, authority, habit, despair, inherited traits, defecating in public, taboos, privilege, fidelity, loneliness, bad hair, and ambivalence. The series is unabashedly narrative in nature - a sort of domestic morality play in [several] acts.

These pieces are rough sketches, including only enough detail to move the narrative. They are gesturally driven, although the gestures vary in range from the flamboyant to the unstudied. I tried to give them the casual quality of snapshots, with some of the subjects posing stiffly, some interrupted in the midst of an activity, and some caught completely unaware. The preliminary work for many of the pieces was in fact photographically based, although I also worked out ideas with drawings. The pieces themselves were made directly in wax, cast in aluminum, and polychromed with acrylic paints. They are three-quarters-round figures, with open backs.

I read in the paper every day reports of war, natural catastrophe, and the horrific breakdown of social order, and yet mine is a quiet life, virtually untouched by that which completely disrupts so many others. I am trying with these pieces to use an understated, if not prosaic format as a point of entry to the world of deeper and broader mystery and tumult that lies just beyond any quiet life."