How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit
JUNE 3 THROUGH JUNE 24, 2010
OPENING / JUNE 3, 5 - 8 PM
WIEDEN+KENNEDY GALLERY
224 NW 13TH AVE
PORTLAND, OR 97209
TEL 503.937.7000
Archetypal narratives bubble beneath the surface in Wendy Given’s demure, fantastic works, offering a hidden strata of meanings to viewers enticed by her interpretations of potential magic. Given embeds and collages story into image and sculpture from every corner of the supernatural map, referencing in this exhibition everything from Alice In Wonderland, to Yeti, to the medieval witch craze that plagued northern Europe. Aiming to produce work that “resonates in the deep, dark and unstable ground between consciousness and collective memory,” Given hopes that this mash-up reflects modern culture’s mode of assimilating and processing myth. While her subject matter dwells on the archaic, her aesthetic, reflected especially in her clean, crisp and processed C‑print photography, is distinctively contemporary.
How To Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit, named after Joseph Beuys’ 1965 performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, is an exploration into recognizable fairy tales and legends as a means to excavating and applying their remaining root values, humor and beauty to our mundane existence. These photos and sculptures include remnants of the performances and rituals Given underwent to transfer her curiosities about her supernatural subjects into the artworks. In this, her works have an air of convincing documentary, as if the artist spied on that which remains unseen to average passersby. Part amusement park, part rare glimpse into secret, charmed territory, Given predicts a new approach to observing what she calls the “otherworldly in the everyday.”
Click here to read the complete essay
—Trinie Dalton
How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit installation view
Wieden+Kennedy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
June 2010
How to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit installation view
Wieden+Kennedy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
June 2010
the illuminating glass, 2010
lighted diorama box, taxidermic rabbit, natural matter, wooden table, velvet cloth and stump stool
50.5 x 36 x 62.5 inches
"private collection"
Wieden+Kennedy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
June 2010
the illuminating glass, 2010
lighted diorama box, taxidermic rabbit, natural matter, wooden table, velvet cloth and stump stool
50.5 x 36 x 62.5 inches
"private collection"
Wieden+Kennedy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
June 2010
the illuminating glass, 2010
lighted diorama box, taxidermic rabbit, natural matter, wooden table, velvet cloth and stump stool
50.5 x 36 x 62.5 inches
"private collection"
Wieden+Kennedy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
June 2010
mouse, 2010
taxidermic mouse
6 x 1.5 x 1.5 inches
wraith, 2010
wood, string, canvas and lacquer
34 x 48 x 16 inches
private collection
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
cubiculum (detail), 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
private collection
Not All Kept Is Hard or soft (detail), 2010
rook and rooster feathers, black hemp rope and a rock
312 x 20 x 20 inches
Not All Kept Is Hard or soft (detail), 2010
rook and rooster feathers, black hemp rope and a rock
312 x 20 x 20 inches
Not All Kept Is Hard or soft (detail), 2010
rook and rooster feathers, black hemp rope and a rock
312 x 20 x 20 inches
White Stump Stools, 2010
wood and lacquer
Private Collection
may you get what you want and want what you get, 2010
wooden wishing well and pedestal with swarovski crystal and glass rhinestones
130 x 20 x 20 inches
may you get what you want and want what you get (Detail), 2010
wooden wishing well and pedestal with swarovski crystal and glass rhinestones
130 x 20 x 20 inches
may you get what you want and want what you get (Detail), 2010
wooden wishing well and pedestal with swarovski crystal and glass rhinestones
130 x 20 x 20 inches
To a Mouse, 2010
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3
Turn Your Back to the Forest, Your Front to Me, 2010
C-print
30 x 40 inches
Edition of 3
Hexinringe, 2010
Ink on vellum
14 x 17 inches
Private Collection
Father to the Thought, 2013
C-print
20 x 20 inches
Edition of 3
The Tutelary, 2013
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3
Wake, 2010
C-print
40 x 60 inches
Edition of 3
And a Pale Horse, 2010
C-print
30 x 30 inches
Edition of 3
on myth and magic no. 8: ignis fatuus, 2009
C-print
30 x 30 inches
Edition of 3
Besom, 2010
C-print
30 x 45 inches
Edition of 3
By the Boat of Charon, 2012
C-print
40 x 60 inches
Edition of 3
of augur and auspice: no. 5 (from under the pillow), 2009
C-print
40 x 40 inches
Edition of 3
