Ponytailed Man Spotted in Cheslea Assuming an Air of Bullshit

by Art Fag City on January 26, 2007 Events

“McKendree Key uses the detritis of human civilization in this work” says Slicky McPonytail, describing a collage with a few pylons in it to a group of middle aged collectors at Caren Golden Fine Art yesterday. You know, I’m really looking forward to a time when the art world can reclaim the word garbage so we don’t have to suffer through the needless use of terms like detritus. The fact that there are people who find it necessary to trump it up further with direct objects such as “human civilization” is just lunacy. I don’t like to feel like I’m part of some sort of language sanitization, intellectual foofery machine.

Incidentally, McKendree Key’s her latest work isn’t as bad as it looks. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no Lake Champlain photograph, but the collage becomes more sculptural in person which benefits the art. Probably the result of changing to a flat medium, the work as a whole feels transitional, and not fully resolved. However, since this exhibition marks the first work she’s ever made that I haven’t liked, I’m feeling like I should let it slide. There are always exceptions to this, but for most artists switching mediums requires a lot more work than people usually take into account.

Note: John Stoney shares the exhibition space with McKendree Key. His intricate paper sculptures that are easily amongst the best I’ve seen amongst those working with the material.

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