May 2, 2011, Featured Articles, Current

Skylar Fein: Black Flag

Mon, Apr 04, 2011

This particular grouping is based in the German Revolution of 1919, using quotes from German activist leader Rosa Luxemburg and Russian pioneer film documentarian and theorist, Dziga Vertov. Drawing parallels in purpose, Fein channels possible connections between revolutionary ideals and action, and artistic ideals and practice. In The Last Words of Rosa Luxemgurg, the quote: “I was, I am, I shall be!” is emblemized and lit up as a victorious monument. Fein’s Vertov Telegram recreates a purported message sent from Vertov to fellow radical Luxemborg in support of her work on the liberal front; a call to consciousness and action for the over throw of the status quo. Fein plays history and myth together to mount an assault on passive cultural thinking, much in line with the punk movement of the 1970’s and early 1980’s. The American flag construction, Black Flag for Herbert Marcuse uses the last words from the Jewish German philosopher Herbert Marcuse’s 1964 book, One Dimensional Man, both works denouncing consumerism as a form of social control.

Fein’s work is dark, predominantly black in color, made of wood and low tech materials, mirroring his DIY ideals. Yet humor is an important tool also; in a table top tableau of books called, Issues, the titles, Mom Issues, Drug Issues, God Complex, Oversharing, Undertow, etc bring the conceptual back to home base. His targets are the subjective personal to the social public – his work a provocative tonic to the decline of critical thinking, action and freedom in the West.

Sklar Fein lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. His work is currently the subject of an exhibition: Installation of Skylar Fein Mixed Media Portrait with Related Works on View, at the Brooklyn Museum, March 23 – August 2011, and The World According to New Orleans, curated by Dan Cameron at Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas, also through August 2011. Fein was included in Prospect 1 New Orleans (curated by Dan Cameron) in 2008, also a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of art in 2009. Fein’s work is in the collection of The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Brooklyn Museum, Louisiana State Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art, Frederick R. Weisman Foundation and notable private collections in the United States.

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