Thomas Erben Gallery | Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Installation view, west and north wall.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Installation view, east and south wall.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Installation view towards west wall.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Installation view, project space: Whitney Claflin, Jenny Scobel, Yamini Nayar.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Hates: Berets, Alexa Chung, When You Have to Pee Wicked Bad and There is No
Starbucks Nearby. 2012. Oil, feather, magazine clippings, paper, spandex and thread
on drop cloth, 36 x 30 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Forget the Salad, 2012. Oil, plastic bag, scented candle, necklace, marker,
thread, psoriasis ointment, eye shadow and feather trimming on cotton,
17 x 13 in (canvas size).

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Most Lies R Listening to Find You, 2012. Oil, hand-dyed fabric, spandex, magazine
clippings, marker, dried flowers, staples, thread and plastic on curtain, 20 x 15 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Untitled, 2012. Mixed media on wine bottles, 11.5 x 3 x 3 in (each bottle).

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Don't Get Pissed Off at My Burnt Lips while the Noose Hangs Dry, 2012. Oil, silk dress, stickers, razor blades, earrings, safety pins, glass, magazine clippings, bobby pin, necklace, found wire, zipper pull, spandex, applique and beads on cotton, 34 x 36 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Dear Bowery, 2012. Oil, magazine clippings, necklace, thread, glitter,
found metal, nail and jewelry on polyester muumuu, 22 x 14 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Web of Lack/ IT IS MY GRAVE, 2012. Oil, spandex dress, earring,
dried flower, found metal, found fabric, glitter, ink and thread on
found fabric , 23 x 15 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - People in California Do Not Give a Fuck about Europe, 2012. Oil, spandex, enamel,
cotton, rayon, glass, earring, bracelet, safety pin, car decal, magazine clippings,
thread, and paper on cotton, 36 x 30 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Résumé Youth, 2012. Oil, paper, ink, plaster, wire, thread, wax and sequin
patch on canvas, 21 x 15 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Van*iSh, 2012. Oil, plaster, magazine clippings, twig, feathers, chalk,
thread and marker on linen, 15 x 10 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Yogurt the Color of Night, 2012. Magazine clippings, red
wine, polyurethane and marker on found fabric, 33 x 18 in.

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too - Isadora, 2012. Oil, sand, crepe paper, metal, glitter, thread, jewelry, staples, rayon
and found fabric on canvas, 18 x 14 in.

Installation view, project space: Whitney Claflin, Jenny Scobel, Yamini Nayar.

Hates: Berets, Alexa Chung, When You Have to Pee Wicked Bad and There is No
Starbucks Nearby. 2012. Oil, feather, magazine clippings, paper, spandex and thread
on drop cloth, 36 x 30 in.

Forget the Salad, 2012. Oil, plastic bag, scented candle, necklace, marker,
thread, psoriasis ointment, eye shadow and feather trimming on cotton,
17 x 13 in (canvas size).

Most Lies R Listening to Find You, 2012. Oil, hand-dyed fabric, spandex, magazine
clippings, marker, dried flowers, staples, thread and plastic on curtain, 20 x 15 in.

Untitled, 2012. Mixed media on wine bottles, 11.5 x 3 x 3 in (each bottle).

Don't Get Pissed Off at My Burnt Lips while the Noose Hangs Dry, 2012. Oil, silk dress, stickers, razor blades, earrings, safety pins, glass, magazine clippings, bobby pin, necklace, found wire, zipper pull, spandex, applique and beads on cotton, 34 x 36 in.

Dear Bowery, 2012. Oil, magazine clippings, necklace, thread, glitter,
found metal, nail and jewelry on polyester muumuu, 22 x 14 in.

Dear Bowery, 2012. Oil, magazine clippings, necklace, thread, glitter, found metal, nail and jewelry on polyester muumuu, 22 x 14 in (detail).

Web of Lack/ IT IS MY GRAVE, 2012. Oil, spandex dress, earring,
dried flower, found metal, found fabric, glitter, ink and thread on
found fabric , 23 x 15 in.

People in California Do Not Give a Fuck about Europe, 2012. Oil, spandex, enamel,
cotton, rayon, glass, earring, bracelet, safety pin, car decal, magazine clippings,
thread, and paper on cotton, 36 x 30 in.

Résumé Youth, 2012. Oil, paper, ink, plaster, wire, thread, wax and sequin
patch on canvas, 21 x 15 in.

Van*iSh, 2012. Oil, plaster, magazine clippings, twig, feathers, chalk,
thread and marker on linen, 15 x 10 in.

Yogurt the Color of Night, 2012. Magazine clippings, red
wine, polyurethane and marker on found fabric, 33 x 18 in.

Yogurt the Color of Night, 2012. Magazine clippings, red wine, polyurethane and marker on found fabric,
33 x 18 in (detail).

Isadora, 2012. Oil, sand, crepe paper, metal, glitter, thread, jewelry, staples, rayon
and found fabric on canvas, 18 x 14 in.

Whitney Claflin

As Long As You Get To Be Somebody's Slave, Too

May 4 - July 13, 2012

Thomas Erben is very excited to present the first solo exhibition at the gallery of new work by Whitney Claflin.

On display are paintings of various sizes on linen, canvas, scarves, glass bottles, curtains and dresses, which examine physical and mental states as well as symptoms of instability and oversaturation. Working between the excesses and deficiencies of painting’s signification, Claflin’s paintings, when taken together, imply a solid, but also dismembered body. This “body” is further shattered and reconstituted when considered alongside Claflin’s performances and painted glass bottles, which function sometimes as flower vases, or in this instance as candleholders.

Lines and mark-making within the works appear dissonant and of various hands: sometimes paint is poured, other times transferred or obscured by fabric. Structural and ornamental motivations become confused when tropes of hysterical insistence (such as sewing a piece of glass onto canvas) are presented alongside an earring precariously placed into a wily, abortive looking piece of found wire. Red herrings emerge through faux indexicality; in Forget the Salad, a scented candle is melted onto a collaged surface, distilling and displacing the vertical time measure of the candles burning in the gallery into an already finished act.

The collaged texts in the works suggest incongruous, reflexive voices. Lifestyle copywriting cut from J. Crew catalogs, saturated adjectives extracted from Rolling Stone record reviews and urbane visions snipped from The New Yorker come together to describe scenes where assistance is always either sexual or professional. Language is used as a way to unmoor what is set forth by the presence of tangible items. Text from subway advertisements, banal statements from organic tea bags and girlish visions of romance – as printed on cheap leggings – are re-formatted as punk-ish back-patches, gesturing toward confused personal branding in an auxiliary world.

Though comprised of objects and phrasing taken from the everyday, the works portray a tenuous relationship with reality. Attempting a self-sufficient whirlpool of exchanges, Claflin traded her glass bottle paintings with other vendors on the Venice Beach Boardwalk for digitally printed spandex clothing and other accessories. Cut up and conflated, this apparel is sewn alongside bits of older, failed paintings, jewelry, trash, dried flowers, psoriasis ointment, eye shadow, feathers and other trimmings.

Sardonically mitigating a climate of wanton desire and multitasking, Claflin’s work offers a platform for confronting our expectations of painting, bodies, and the exchange value of femininity.

Whitney Claflin (b. 1983, Providence, RI) received her BFA from RISD, 2005, and her MFA from Yale in 2009; her work has been included in group shows at this gallery in 2010 and 2011. She had a solo exhibition, Nothing to Blame but Gemini, with Real Fine Arts in 2010, where she also recently performed IMPULSE. Other group exhibitions include Steel Life, Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, 2012; Happy Holidays! Drawings! Alex Zachary Peter Currie, New York, 2011; The Open, Deitch Projects, Long Island City, 2009; and Space Is A Place, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, 2007. Mary Jones interviewed the artist for BOMBlog in 2011. Claflin lives and works in Brooklyn.

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Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too (Works)

Selected Works

Whitney Claflin

Whitney Claflin – As Long As You Get To Be Somebody’s Slave, Too Press Release