Jason Mortara
January 8 - February 20, 2010
Schalter is pleased to announce Fifty-Two and a Half Degrees, an exhibition by Boston-based artist Jason Mortara. The exhibition consists of two components: a series of large photographs, “The Building of ‘Big No. 4,’” presented within the gallery; and a video, “Dream House (Burn),” projected in the gallery’s front windows at night for the duration of the exhibition.
Fifty-Two and a Half Degrees, as an exhibition title, introduces the viewer to a kind of looping play or pluralism often foregrounded in Mortara’s work. Here, it is left open for the viewer to decide what “degree” the title refers to: is it the cool of 52.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which would be felt standing in the space where the “Big No. 4” was built; the 52.5 of Celsius and implied warmth that might be experienced watching a house, like the one in the video, ablaze in person; or, finally, is it a degree of latitude and a reflection of location of the gallery space?
A similar toying with reference and meaning takes place in Mortara’s series of photographs, “The Building of ‘Big No. 4.’” The photographs document and depict two concurrent timelines: the nighttime construction of a large sculpture of the number 4, and the building out of a large interior space by workers during normal working hours. The construction of the number 4, is built out of the same lumber and drywall material the workers used to build the room touching on notions of labor, meaning and association, to question the desire to find (or not find) significance in a number.
“Dream House (Burn)” arose out of another sporadic series began by the artist in 2003, “The Dream House Variations.” The video, presented at night as a projection in the gallery window, shows a small house slowly going up in flames. The house’s dimensions are based on the size of the artist’s body with outstretched arms and feet, while the shape is derived from the typical child’s representation of a house — namely a block with a triangle on top — occasionally graced with a window or door. As an image, the house is paradoxically deeply intimate as a site of personal meaning unique to each individual and yet universal and blank in its archetypal representation.
Jason Mortara’s installation, video, live art, sculpture, drawing, painting, photography and proposals have been shown at Mission 17 Gallery, Southern Exposure, The Oakland Art Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, and others. He received his MFA in New Genres from The San Francisco Art Institute in 2004. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2006, received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 2007 and attended the Atlantac Center for the Arts residency in Florida with Paul Pfeiffer. More of his work can be seen at jasonmortara.com.
