Bob Jones - Art Show

Bobby Freedom gets reviewed in New City Chicago . Congrats, Bob. Drive down to I-80, face West, and hold a High Life to the air. I'll do the same to the East. Cheers.

Eye Exam
End Times
by Jason Foumberg

Bob Jones makes little nothings. His current exhibition features five objects and one painting. With the exception of the painting, which cannot get away from the fact that it is art because of its traditional right-angled support, the objects verge on being junk. Are the handmade concrete rock and the stick covered in plaster really necessary objects? No, but they are necessarily inadequate objects, made to express a defect—a shortcoming and an escape. They are complex objects not because of their contextual status as art, but because they are so preciously anti-precious. The lack of force in these objects proves that Jones has nothing to gain from feigning ideological concern, cultural or otherwise, yet they are wasteful objects, purposefully unresponsive. Sometimes they are literally composed of the waste of other artworks in process.

All this is to say that the byproduct is more telling or more representative of our varied crises than intentional strides at doing the right thing. Contemporary art is a byproduct of culture—no, is a symptom of the common awfulness that is mass-market hysteria for something meaningful. If we wallow in it, rather than celebrate it, then we’ll really know what it means and how it feels.

Bob Jones shows at 65GRAND, 1378 West Grand, (312)719-4325, through November 10.



Bob's web site

Also, some pictures from the exhibition: