{"id":1836,"date":"2010-08-14T18:54:55","date_gmt":"2010-08-15T02:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2017-04-16T23:11:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T06:11:57","slug":"james-shefik-is-an-army-of-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/14\/james-shefik-is-an-army-of-none-1836\/","title":{"rendered":"James Shefik Is An Army of None"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on August 13, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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“Bagged Head #3,” Charcoal pencil on mid-tone paper (2005)<\/p><\/div>\n

James Shefik calls himself a pessimist. Deeply critical of the sociopolitical environment which facilitated the war in Iraq, his work dwells on the darker side of human nature, including violence, hate, and rampant consumerism.\u00a0\u201cI Am Not An Army” includes both mixed-media sculpture and drawings, and nearly all the pieces contain references to cartoons or other animation. Those of us who as adolescents were indoctrinated by pre-politically correct cartoons can relate when Shefik says, \u201cThe world we live in seems so cartoonish. Maybe it always has been. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Despite the near-photorealism of the charcoal drawing \u201cBagged Head #3\u201d it\u2019s difficult to make out the subject, because the mind recoils and refuses to accept it. Shefik says the carrot wallpaper usually gives it away. Bugs Bunny, shrouded and bound, looking more like an inmate at Abu Ghraib than the rascally rabbit that breezes through his charmed life. What\u2019s up with that, Doc?<\/em> \u201cBugs was just the coolest wise guy, and they got him too.\u201d None of us is safe, then.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWorship\u201d is an image of a warship bearing that word in a pun which succinctly decries killing in the name of religion. From a distance it appears to be comprised of Ben-Day dots, like a Lichtenstein. Get closer and you see that it is actually made up of hundreds of matches, some burned black. Look closer still. Each \u201cmatch\u201d is hand-shaped and painted birch wood.<\/p>\n

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“Worship,” Hand-shaped birch, spackle, paint (2010)<\/p><\/div>\n

Shefik claims that the decision to fabricate these was purely utilitarian: Struck matches are too fragile for the work to survive. But the near-obsessive care and attention to detail even in the crates he built to pack his work suggest that he probably would have done it anyway.<\/p>\n

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“#1,” Foam, butcher paper, string, pencils (2004)<\/p><\/div>\n

Pieces like \u201c#1\u201d (in a series of three bomb sculptures) show a chink in the armor of Shefik\u2019s pessimism. It appears to be a spherical bomb of the sort popular in cartoons (and the Revolutionary War) wrapped in paper and twine, with a long fuse. It bears Cesar Chavez stamps and an Oakland postmark (where Shefik resides), and more than a dozen sharpened pencils protrude from the center. Even taken at face value \u201c#1\u201d is potentially lethal. But as a metaphor playing on \u201cthe pen is mightier than the sword,\u201d or Public Enemy\u2019s \u201cWhen I get mad \/ I put it down on a pad,\u201d its power is magnified. It\u2019s a weapon of mass instruction.<\/p>\n

This work needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. You need to see those details, and walk around his sculptures and view them from all sides. Trace the trajectory of the bullets in his 3D Pop Art sculpture \u201cBlam!\u201d (2008). Also, remarkably, this is Shefik\u2019s first gallery show, so you\u2019ll be able to say you knew him when.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all, folks.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI Am Not An Army\u201d<\/strong> is open from August 13 through September 12 at Autobody Fine Art<\/a>, with a free public opening reception from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on August 13 and a free public closing reception from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on September 10. Gallery hours are from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. Autobody is at 1517 Park Street, Alameda, CA 94501.\u00a0Their phone is (510) 865-2608.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on August 13, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.\u00a0 James Shefik calls himself a pessimist. Deeply critical of the sociopolitical environment which facilitated the war in Iraq, his work dwells on the darker side of human nature, including violence, hate, and rampant consumerism.\u00a0\u201cI Am Not An Army” includes both mixed-media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,118,211,72],"class_list":["post-1836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-autobody-fine-art","tag-james-shefik","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-tC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5509,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions\/5509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}