{"id":36344,"date":"2017-03-17T13:39:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T18:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artmur.com\/?page_id=36344\/"},"modified":"2022-12-08T10:15:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T15:15:15","slug":"grid-roads-and-a-dead-mans-hand","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/artmur.com\/en\/artists\/clint-neufeld\/grid-roads-and-a-dead-mans-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Grid Roads and a Dead Man’s Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"
May 6 \u2013 June 17, 2017
\nOpening reception: Saturday, May 6, 2017 from 3-5 p.m.
\nClint Neufeld
\nArt M\u00fbr, Montreal (QC)<\/p>\n

Text by Martha Robinson<\/p>\n

The title of Clint Neufeld\u2019s ceramic incarnation of a Detroit diesel engine, Screaming Jimmy, the first time we met in that field I knew you were the one (2016), now in the collection of the Remai Modern, speaks volumes. That a diesel engine should have a nickname\u2014Screaming Jimmy\u2014is emblematic of the artist\u2019s practice of using objects that come with baggage, with their own histories; and too, it references the stories Neufeld finds reflected back at him, an anthropology by engine. The title also chronicles Neufeld\u2019s first compelling encounter with the (real) Detroit diesel, what the artist describes as something not more complicated than a recognition of beauty, and a desire to share with others the rethinking of the engine as aesthetic object.<\/p>\n

Neufeld\u2019s work can be addressed conceptually\u2014perhaps through Thing Theory, as an object \u201cwith a changed relation to the human subject,\u201d resembling something that works, or worked, and now an object asserting itself as thing.1 The recontextualization of the object and its attendant meanings is what the artist interrogates, \u201cdifferent people\u2019s understanding of the same thing.\u201d As objects of someone else\u2019s history, the ceramic engines become a common language to engage viewer and artist\u2014catalysts for stories, collected histories. Neufeld\u2019s understanding of his practice has grown through the layered histories his engines gather, conversations which have led him to what, in turn, he wishes to question more specifically in his practice.
\nNeufeld\u2019s statement that he \u201cjust wanted to make a really shiny engine,\u201d belies the careful juxtaposition of object and surface that transform his motors and engines into fragile objects. Merging the visual identity of fine china, its inherent delicacy, with engines or lathes, Neufeld remarks he didn\u2019t know that he \u201cwas aware of what the implications would be.\u201d Screaming Jimmy is graced with colours recalling vintage domestic china; satin lathe (2014) and satin valve grinder (2015) take as their inspiration the matte finish and relief decorations of Wedgewood\u2019s iconic Jasperware; one yellow rose (2012) doubles the historical implications of Neufeld\u2019s work, the delicate transferware decals of its massive engine disputing its own identity as it rests lightly on a Queen Anne sofa.<\/p>\n

Smash (2016), the video accompanying this exhibition, underscores these juxtapositions: playing on the implicit fragility of fine china confronting the perceived mass of an engine, a motor, a lathe. Hoisted much as its real-life counterpart would be for installation in a chassis, the ceramic engine\u2014almost the twin of the engine seen in one yellow rose\u2014drops, immediately and literally shattering the solidity that the viewer attaches to it, disrupting our understanding of the aestheticized object to foreground the tension embodied in these works. The engine weight the viewer feels is replaced by shattered remnants, a notion of fragility always already in place.<\/p>\n

Hard work, technical and physical challenges are embedded in the artist\u2019s process, moving the work forward as he explores scale and finish. In agrarian Canada where the ability to do a hard day\u2019s work, \u201cbeing judged by the dirt under your fingernails,\u201d is looked upon with respect, this stands him in good stead with his neighbours. Neufeld\u2019s machines and engines are doubly evocative of a rural ethic, as the product and signifier of lifetimes of labour\u2014another of the possibly unforeseen implications that bring rich histories and delight.<\/p>\n

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1. Bill Brown, \u201cThing Theory,\u201d Critical Inquiry 28.1 (2001): 4.<\/div>\n

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