Incubator: Wrecked Exotics by Jana Hargarten

This week, artist Jana Hargarten considers interdependency, power structures and Holocene Epoch extinctions, as part of our Summer Incubator Series.On show in the community gallery through July 9, Wrecked Exotics is a series of metaphorical drawings-in-progress of animals in teetering balancing acts. Look forward to a video podcast of a visit to Hargarten’s studio on the blog later this week, and come celebrate the opening of the show tomorrow night during our Rooftop Patio Series.

In the meantime, here are some images from Wrecked Exotics and an artist statement. Come visit us to check it out.

Wrecked Exotics - Jana Hargarten

Oscar Wilde: ‘When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money.

Have you seen “Pecker”? I love that movie. It’s about a boy who snaps pictures of his everyday life and he becomes famous when rich people like his work. Then he becomes rich too, but he takes pictures of his rich life and then the rich don’t like his work so much.

The title for this exhibition comes from the website http://www.wreckedexotics.com/. The site is not for those into Kaballah; It’s heavy on the schadenfreude. It’s a blog letting people know about the dangers of reckless driving. For me, it scratches a different itch. It’s full of totalled expensive cars. The thing is, I want a car like that more than I want to see someone else’s nice car ruined. How do I get one of those in mint condition?

I like looking through catalogues from rich people stores and internet window shopping. I spend hours filling up the virtual shopping cart and watching the bill climb to astronomical proportions. I want to press the checkout button so badly. I can’t make enough money at my day job or having a garage sale, even if I take the bus and take my lunch. I thought I might catalogue my stuff in drawings and paintings, thereby turning it into fine art. Rich people love fine art and they love expensive things. If I can take my worn out stuff and nostalgify it in oils, then I’m printing money. Solid Gold! I’m in business.

But then I make the work and it’s sad. It’s telling me something preachy. It’s a bunch of toy animals I bought with my credit card. I had to have them. I justified them as a tax write off. The postal workers are locked out now and they can’t have a pension, because I’m spending our tax money to paint toy animals. The animals are all teetering on top of eachother about to fall over. And they do fall over. They topple down over and over again while I’m drawing them. I think this work is about the looming perils of mindless-consumerism, over-consumption, and it’s effect on the environment. It’s also a cute accessory affixed with a barely noticeable warning label.