“The theory goes that a composite of many faces will make the most attractive face. I originally set out to debunk this theory. At the same time I stumbled across an interview with Hakim Bey where he discusses an early american cult leader from the late 1700’s named Jemima Wilkinson, aka the “Publick Universal Friend”. I thought about her life and what might make a universal friend — a puzzle-piece person that fits into every puzzle, a skeleton key human. The project became an effort to square this historical figure with my own psychological / facial studies. This is not to say I succeeded in any respect in fixing an image of this person or in validating some theory of human attractiveness, this is just what I was thinking about at the time. What emerged was a series of slow, vaporous, shape-shifting images that I have difficulty reconciling to this day.”
-David O’Brien
David O’Brien is an artist living and working in Los Angeles, CA and Santa Fe, NM. He maintains and eclectic art practice encompassing video, painting, printmaking and photography. His work explores the human impact on the ecological world and the humor, hubris, and psychological distortions surrounding the environmental movement. The work often takes the form of a projected “future archaeology” of humanity on the planet and mines the tension between the sublime and the mundane manifest in this imaginary field of study.
David’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Torrance Art Museum as well as numerous gallery exhibitions including solo shows in Los Angeles and Berlin. He is represented by Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA.
Visit David O’Brien’s website: davidobrienartwork.com
Admission is free