Josh Dihle: Basement Arrangement
@ ANDREW RAFACZ
1749 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Opening Friday, June 6th, from 5PM - 8PM
On view through Saturday, July 19th
ANDREW RAFACZ hereby posts notice of Basement Arrangement, an assembly of new paintings and a book release from Josh Dihle, in Gallery One. The exhibition opens Friday, June 6th and continues through July 18th, 2025. This is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.
The middle-aged family man of North America is an evening troglodyte of delicate passions. Tiny railroads, itty bitty dollhouses, whittled wood chains, warfare writ small, secret levels, headsets, and joysticks; these are the trappings and dominions of the power-hungry basement hobbyist. The upstairs folk just don’t listen anymore, they don’t understand him or his fears and wants. Like Dante, Virgil, Buffalo Bill, and so many before him, down he goes.
Careful now! The basement arrangement is precarious. Small universes turn upon the paper-thin contract of allowance struck between these hidden recreationists, their kin, and the world at large. Ask Josh, he’ll tell you. He’ll say we want control; we want to shape the world just like big brother capitalist and protein shake alpha dog. We can burrow into the pop culture private islands of godlike experiment. Isla Nublar, Doctor Moreau’s island, Never Never Land, Skull Island, Fort Detrick, Fallingwater crumbling into the creek: these are the spoiled sandboxes of misinformed men. But our best bets are laid downstairs, under false suns, where no one can ask us to share. The model railroader is the truest creator: engineer, architect, and master of his own timetable. The same holds for the woodworker, the dollhouse maker, the miniaturist, the gamer, the collector. We organize bits of the world like bower birds and trot them downstairs to garnish our protective play palaces.
What of these little pleasures? What if they spoil? Or they grow vulnerable and gentle? What if they’re accidentally nurturing and generous in their tiny fullness? What if this dad fathered his own perfect shining sun? Is there room in the basement for soft thoughts?
Consult the caveman’s town charter, the handbook of his rules and questions. The wet diary of things seen and done. In these waters, Dihle’s companion book Eel Diary wriggles up from the murk and fixes its stare on the basement steps. Two-hundred pages of drawings and notes, Eel Diary comprises over ten years of fascination. Together, these built worlds of paintings, words, and passions manage a frail détente amongst themselves, welcoming guests to the basement.
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Tags: andrew rafacz, Basement Arrangement, Chicago, Josh Dihle, West Town
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