Samara Golden- Mass Murder
Jesse Mockrin- Midnight Sun
When you walk into Night Gallery it will take your eyes awhile to adjust. When they do you will see a car parked in the center of the gallery. The next room holds Jesse Mockrin’s paintings, styled after traditional master painters, lit with one light each. The next rooms are filled with odd aluminum covered furniture, a sunset projection on one wall, stuffed animals, pianos, keyboards and more. These objects (and the car) are all part of Samara Golden’s Mass Murder. What does it all mean? Here’s a bit of the press release:
It’s Mass murder. It’s the world and then the reversal of the world. It’s trying to find the beautiful inside of a horrible world of hypocrisy and contradiction. It’s personal. It’s optimism and pessimism in a dead lock. It’s two stories. It’s bad blood. It’s a caged thought. It’s a purple light giving a performance. It’s our living room 1975-1988. It’s an airport convention room, it’s a bank, a hospital, a hotel. The wall, a dance club, a parking lot. It’s a flight simulator that makes you believe you’re in the sky when you’re actually crashing into nothing-miles away from real life. It’s the disillusionment of the Vietnam generation, it’s my parents. It’s keyboard lessons, gymnastics, those flowers my mom loves, Vivaldi the four seasons, Pink Floyd, The Ramones. It’s a room that was both my sister’s place and my grandma’s. It’s the records, the boom box, Detroit “wheelz” radio, the two cockatiel birds, Rudy, and heavy metal. It’s the black and white TV, the alcohol, the reading, the neon knitted Afghans, the curly grey hair, the heart problems, the smoke, and the cigarettes. It’s also the matchboxes, the taste, the piano, the white carpet, the abalone box in the ladies room, the jewelry. It’s a highway underpass. It’s sleeping in the street. It’s train hopping. It’s April, it’s her amputated leg. It’s a big mess, seriously. It’s a place to think about it. It’s the fog and the mist. It’s asking why-it’s hoping for a peaceful place. It’s a broken heart for the world.