Spec work by Roy Bigler

SPEC, the second of two solo shows at SOUTHSIDE GALLERY opened on November 8, 1996. In the window I had placed a keyboard from an old upright piano. Positioned as a low table on two ornate blocks, it was covered by a piece of plate glass that I found that happened to be the same length and width as the ready made ivories. Silent, it was a quiet suggestion of the sounds that it once enabled a player to hear.

On the wall were a dozen package-like assemblages in varied sizes. Each under sixteen by nine inches, they embodied ideas surrounding the containment of objects and the ideas that objects contain. A small off-white bundle called SEMBLANCE hints an animal’s face peering through gauze. The wrapped and bound IN SPIRIT presents a golden wish bone, oxidized and coated in verdigris by the reaction of bleach with brass and calcium.

In AN OTHER YEAR, a bound panel of twelve cowrie shells that bleed red signifies a past calendar year. A heavy LODE conceals an early nineties edition of a Cleveland Metropolitan Area White Pages. Its split red hide reveals a vein of gold, resembling a lode deposit embedded in a slab of rock. SPECTIVE houses a veridian taxidermied lizard and white paper grass behind glass.

This exhibit also featured ten cigar box collections of found objects. Held in the gallery’s glass display case, the ROYAL JAMAICA SUITE of five pieces and the SUITE TE-AMO in three were accompanied by the solo MACANUDO and the minute TURKISH SPECIAL. Presently shown is GIANT CORONAS 1 of the ROYAL JAMAICA SUITE.

Spec
Roy Bigler
November 8 – December 30, 1996