PRAY FOR THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY
011668
JULY 20 – AUGUST 17
OPENING RECEPTION: 6–9 PM, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2024
PRESS RELEASE
The dinosaurs struck a deal with God, and traded their flesh. Once deconstructed, the dinosaur's consciousness was absorbed by the earth and transmuted into other forms of life. Now reincarnated as angels of combustion and steel and plastic, dinosaurs are insulating the womb of the next christ body. We can now merge with the dinosaurs in the driver’s seat, and establish a nexus of evolutionary power… Toyota will live 2,000 years.
"011668" presents PRAY FOR THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY, an exhibition and proposal that aims to recontextualize our current Anthropocene era through a thought movement. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in LA. The concept traces its roots to the influential New Age movements of California. 011668 takes crude oil, known for its disastrous environmental impact, and symbolically transubstantiates it into the reincarnation of the dinosaurs. The show's namesake is inspired by the aspirational messaging of car commercials, capturing the allure and individualistic fantasies associated with automobile culture while outlining the foundations of 011668's modern religion.
The exhibition features chimeric sculptures, such as The Cookbook (2022) and Truth of Life (2023), which draw inspiration from M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, serving as harbingers and truth-speakers of impending apocalypses. Here, an apocalypse is redefined to encompass not just the end of the world, but the beginning of a new era. By contemplating how dinosaurs underwent a petroleum reincarnation, the exhibition prompts us to consider what transformative changes humans might undergo to become a future dominant species.
Mandala At The End of Empire (2024), challenges us to examine America's role in an increasingly uncertain global geopolitical landscape, particularly as we approach what feels like the end of an era. Countless Gods Harvested By The Enagic Corporation (1974) references the origins of this current global governance, displaying 3,600 Okinawan Tumeric Capsules. Okinawa, a critical military site for the U.S. after WWII, faced significant civilian casualties during the conflict with over 1/4th of the civilian population either having died or committed suicide during the 82-day battle. The island continues to serve as a vital strategic location for the U.S. in the Pacific.
Sol Roth Dathan (2022) comprises a series of sculptures showcasing family ephemera, lentils, and dehydrated soy suspended in resins, offering a glimpse and a warning of a new world immortalized in a plastic petroleum derivative. The title references a character from the 1973 film Soylent Green, which depicts a dystopian future where cannibalism becomes a means of survival. Much like oil, these murky reincarnations of past eras serve as prophecies of forthcoming ideological revolutions and societal sea changes.
These depictions of the world’s future and past have been molded by the American TV & film industry, much like the highway-shaped trajectories of LA’s promises of realizing fame and fortune. 011668 authors a prayer for oil, the invisible force behind this, the personal god, guiding our world and facilitating our destinies.
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011668 [b. 1995 Whittier, CA] is an American interdisciplinary artist exploring spirituality, mythology, and cosmogony through the digital age. Acknowledging industrial forces as our modern pantheon, 011668 unravels a contemporary creation myth while fusing elements of butoh dance, tokusatsu, and film noir. 011668 has been a guest speaker at the University of California LA and Taipei National University of the Arts (Taiwan). Select group exhibitions include Minor Gaps Between (Human Resources, LA), Nexus (New Image Art, LA), Infinite Scroll (Trauma Bar und Kino, Berlin), and Tokyo Olympics - Opening Ceremony (Final Hot Desert, Vernal, UT). 011668 has performed internationally in Berlin, Amsterdam, NYC, LA, and Tokyo, among other locations. They will be in residence at Coaxial Arts later this year and are included in the LACE Foundation’s 10th Emergent Curator presentation with Nahui Garcia.
1933 W Kingston Pl
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles, CA