WENDY GIVENHow to Explain Magic to a Dead Rabbit
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
wieden+kennedy gallery, portland, oregon
june 2010
how to explain magic to a dead rabbit installation
wieden+kennedy gallery, portland, oregon
june 2010
i am that merry wanderer of the night, 2010
C-print and swarovski crystal rhinestones
30 x 45 inches
Edition of 3
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
the illuminating glass(Detail), 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
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 inches
cubiculum, 2010
cuckoo clock diorama with taxidermic sparrow and miniature working cuckoo clock
58 x 13 x 11.5 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
NFS
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
NFS
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
NFS
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, 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, 2010
wooden wishing well and pedestal with swarovski crystal and glass rhinestones
130 x 20 x 20 inches
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