Snuff
Tony Balko, Todd Chilton, Jeffrey Grauel, & Diego Leclery
April 25 - May 16, 2015

Snuff. There is always something shameful about that word. An obvious shame in the thrill kill porn. The tobacco product is oogie. Not up to snuff emphasizes the pathetic side of falling short. But there is power available in the degradation. Transcendence comes from destruction. At least destruction, tearing apart, tearing down, has its place on the pathway. 

Tony Balko, Todd Chilton, Jeffrey Grauel, and Diego Leclery are responding to things they love. Or loved. For one reason or another, something beloved isn’t up to snuff. To move to the next thing, each must dig through what makes the first thing problematic. Each destructive arch was set into motion by asking for response to Robert Rauschenberg’s seminal work, Erased DeKooning.

Tony chose to focus on Mel Gibson’s film Lethal Weapon, a favorite from his youth. Todd begins with early paintings by Frank Stella. Jeffrey, Jonah Lehrer’s book, Imagine. Diego ponders his relationship with recently passed Barbara DeGenevieve.

Rid yourself of the thing you love. Open the way to something better. Not people we’re destroying, but the problematic attachments we have to what they made.