eyewash @ Aqua Art Miami eyewash will participate in the third Aqua Art Miami satellite festival taking place at the Aqua Hotel 1530 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, December 5-9 during the Miami/Basel fair, the largest in the U.S., eyewash will be spot-lighting the work of Linda Ganjian, Edward Monovich, David Kramer, Wayne Coe, Betsy Kelleher, Catya Plate, Peter Fox, Peter Barrett & Paul Kuhrman. If you are attending the event that weekend stop by room 120 at the Aqua Hotel. < by Edward Monovich, Satellite Fist," 2006, mixed-media on paper, 17" x 22" eyewash@Figureworks Edward Monovich, Wishing Well October 26 thru November 25, 2007 Figureworks 168 North 6th St Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211 “Wishing Well” The “wish” sequence is a commonly used fairytale device that outlines the protagonist’s hope for delivery from their struggles. These drawings make an analogy between America’s desire to glamorize global conflict as fairytale and the wish device. Works investigate oversimplification of cultural issues, where the black and white clarity of fairytales omits geopolitical nuances. Soldiers in these works carry standard issue assault rifles and wear contemporary fatigues; they are fully equipped to participate in today’s campaigns. Though uniforms and surroundings seem to conjure a foreign battlefield, works also investigate domestic concerns. These soldiers infiltrate issues and agendas that reach the public in stealthy ways, via advertising icons, fairytale characters and archetypal heroes. On the internet, at newsstands and department stores, Winnie-the-Pooh, Strawberry shortcake and G.I. Joe gently nudge these agendas against children’s taste buds. They are the proverbial “spoonful of sugar.” Value systems are bought and sold along with product. Poetry, plot and process bend to the whims of marketability. These versions of popular characters reclaim their content and context, as they suit-up for war, they become insurgents; hidden meanings are revealed and subverted. In the works, pixilated landscapes act as containers for seemingly disparate elements. Patterning is based on modern digital camouflage taken from military uniforms. Pixilation also alludes to psychological and geographical dislocation experienced while “virtual” images are viewed through mass-media filters. Suburban landscapes are reinterpreted from idyllic representations in advertising and children’s stories, which seek to homogenize notions of home. By conflating pastoral images of suburbia with scenes of war, drawings interrogate systems that determine wealth and privilege, while unmasking implications of economic “success” in geopolitical human rights abuses. Visit eye on Brooklyn blog