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Indepth Arts News:
"Newest Metal Sculptures by David Buckingham: How to Talk Dirty and Influence People"
2008-03-15 until 2008-05-03
MMGalleries
San Francisco, CA,
USA United States of America
MMGalleries is proud to present the newest metal sculptures by David Buckingham. David Buckingham, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People opens on March 15 and runs through May 3, 2008. Buckingham's inspiration -- graffiti, snippets of dialogue overheard in office hallways, advertising, guns and their effect on the American psyche, the culture of celebrity (and celebrity guns), cartoons, movies -- have all sunk into his consciousness over the years and they are starting to make their way back out. In his first solo show at MMGalleries, David Buckingham reiterates all of it, together with his inclination for anything with a history. First he appropriates the title of Lenny Bruce's autobiography (who took it from a famous self-help book by Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People).
Secondly, all of his raw materials come from old trucks, road signs, school buses, car doors, all metal junk that he finds in the desert of Southern California. He states: "What I look for are old, battered, colorful metal things that have had a previous life and have the scars to prove it. I want to make art from things that have a story to tell." Lastly, his subject matter, from his "celebrity guns," to his slogans and mottoes, have often an historical pertinence to the city where they are shown. In the past for his San Francisco audience, he made a "Dirty Harry" Smith & Wesson.38 Chief's Special (connected with the San Francisco serial killer "Zodiac"), as well as a "Dan White" gun, used to kill San Francisco's former Mayor Moscone. He also reproduced in stenciled metal letters the Bay Area based Symbionese Liberation Army's broad slogan, "Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people."
Famous movie lines are among Buckingham's constant fascination, which he cuts and welds in beautiful old metal's muted colors and rusty frames. This is a brilliant case of paradoxical semiotics, where the iconic movie line slowly but surely degrades in its rusted appearance, as a parallel with the American culture. But Buckingham also aims to elicit a reaction with his profane phrases, culled out of context from popular culture.
A New Orleans native currently working in Los Angeles, Buckingham is associated with the Rivington School in New York City, and is shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. His work has been included in an exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum, and in several private collections throughout the United States.
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