A Zoom-based reading and more details to come.

“As far back as I can remember these abandoned structures that weren’t being used or had been left to the elements held a fascination. Abandoned cars, junkyards, inert ski lifts, piles of refuse, and rusting heavy machinery seductively beckoned and aroused a potent desire to poke around and witness. The draw is a communion with that special stillness pervading an environment where no one has been for a long time, as well as the thrill of going where you’re not supposed to. Climbing over fences, trespassing, sneaking around with ears cocked for the approach of an authority figure who might chase one away. Looking back that solitary lurking was a way to get away from others, paradoxically where there were traces of human activity, with the pleasure of the knowledge that decaying and ignored structures are entities with their own character that resonate somewhere deep down.”

Jocko Weyland, Objects Also Die, Elk Books, 2011

The mid-size gouaches on view in The Book I Read In are based on photographs taken when no one else was around in Rockaway, New York, Los Angeles, California and Mt. Rose, Nevada, then executed as paintings in secluded Punta Mita, Mexico. Though seemingly exceedingly topical with their aura of isolation, they are part of a long-running continuum of engagement with unpopulated, lonely vistas that has its roots in the artist’s childhood on 300 acres of land 8,500 feet above sea level in Northern Colorado, a mile from a paved road. Though not at all purposely timely at the time of their conception and realization, by dint of current events they are inadvertently prescient and fully aligned with a newly relevant awareness of emptiness and abandonment.

About the Artist
Jocko Weyland’s (b. 1967, Helsinki, Finland) work spans photography, writing, bookmaking, curating, and most recently primarily painting. He is the author of The Answer is Never – A Skateboarder’s History of the World (Grove Press, 2002), The Powder, Danny’s Lot, and Geomancy (Dashwood Books, 2011, 2015, 2017), and the short story collection Eating Glass, published in 2015 by 1980 Editions. Exhibitions have been held at MOCA Tucson, Ever Gold, San Francisco, CA, FakeSpace, Beijing, China; PG4S and Martos, Los Angeles, CA, and Franklin Parrasch and Kerry Schuss in New York. This is his second outing with Everybody, the first being “Lantau Elk Cat” at their Tucson location in 2017. Weyland is represented by Kerry Schuss Gallery.

About Everybody
Everybody is a gallery in Chicago, IL that primarily works with emerging and perpetually-emerging artists. Its beginnings started in a warehouse project space in Tucson, AZ where it held twelve exhibitions and participated in NADA New York 2018. Everybody’s activity has been featured in Vulture, ARTnews, Arizona Public Media, and more.

Official Website

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Tags: Chicago, Everybody, Jocko Weyland, North Lawndale, The Book I Read In