Joshua Pieper: Dry State

Joshua Pieper's Dry State exhibition is a much-needed reminder of a conceptual art practice that dominated San Francisco not so long ago. Pieper claims simplicity as the reason for his works’ existence. However, only when viewers later consider what they just observed does the work truly reveal itself—it is paradoxical, the beauty being that it’s perfectly, conceptually uncomplicated.

Dry State succeeds in this vein because Pieper maintains his long-standing interest in art as commentary beyond the individual works; he uses the exhibition space itself as a physical conduit. The centerpiece of the exhibition, a massively oversize sculpture titled Sandwich Board (2015), reads, “For your viewing pleasure while you're being done in.” The sandwich board physically delivers a gesture of deviance as it haphazardly consumes much of the space and subdues viewers, who not only view the work but also are subsumed by its message.

Joshua Pieper. Ray Charles, Charles Ray, 2015; silkscreen on two wood panels; 14 x 28 in. Courtesy of the Artist and Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco.
Multiple framed versions of the exhibition’s promotional poster occupy the largest wall in the gallery and feed into the paradox: “It might be what's remembered most after all.” The works in the exhibition are purposeful. They are meant to impose an experience as a whole rather than as singular objects. However, Pieper's work also suggests an interchangeability of sameness built upon a default understanding of objects, people, and ideas.

A series of silkscreen images on wood panels present the obvious in an emotionless way. Ray Charles, Charles Ray (2015), Jacques (2015) and Phil Collinses (2015) compel the viewer to recognize the sameness of titles, while also acknowledging the stark differences in the way one identifies sameness. This is perhaps most clearly rendered in Ray Charles, Charles Ray. Pieper juxtaposes the sculptor Charles Ray with the musician Ray Charles in a portrait, based on a shared namesake. The silkscreen uses the visual attire of each as a focal point of variation, while compositionally both men are turned inward in similar positions. The flat texture and monochromatic finish of the silkscreen emphasize the forms and approximate surface similarities (statement glasses, button-up shirts) while allowing a contrast of details (rounded versus squared, formal versus informal). Methodically minimal, Pieper visually attains that even on the surface there is little similarity outside of the superficial.

Dry State requires attention to the works. The subtle statements that play against exaggerated notions of the (at times) painfully obvious are what cause Pieper's work to provoke beyond the finished object itself. Once this sensibility is understood, the paradox resets itself instantly. This is a trait most specific to Pieper's conceptual art practice and is well honed in Dry State. 

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Petra Royale Bibeau is a writer and curator based in Oakland, California.

Joshua Pieper: Dry State is on view at Romer Young Gallery, in

San Francisco