Craig Drennen
Gallery Affiliations: Samson
Region: South
From 2002 until 2007 I made drawings, paintings, multiples, performances, and audio works based on the failed 1984 movie Supergirl. I saw the movie once.
I now organize my studio practice around the play Timon of Athens, written by William Shakespeare between 1605 and 1608. It is generally considered to be Shakespeare’s most difficult and obscure work, and is the only one of his plays not performed in his lifetime. I don’t valorize failure in my work. Rather, failed projects provide me with empty cultural bandwidth within which to house my own subjectivity.
I am proceeding through the cast of characters listed in the dramatis personae beginning with the minor characters. For each character, I produce a distinct series of works based on contemporary associations. The final result will be a body of related works comprised of separately considered parts. The Masquers have a minor role in a first act banquet scene and are portrayed by appropriated versions of all 18 parts of David Robbins’ Talent from 1986.