Queenland’s work conveys a sense of ephemera through a resistance to
overt representation, encouraging personal exploration and analytic
effort by the viewer. Through his sculptures, photographs, and
installations, he shifts traditional symbolic associations, abstracting
familiar objects without eliminating their original forms. The
resulting works have an aura of mystery despite the familiarity of their
content.
The title of the exhibition, Bread & Balloons, refers to its main
sculptural elements, and reflects the artist’s interest in the
relationship between language and form. Queenland cast a range of
balloons in a variety of materials (plaster, latex, bronze) and
juxtaposes them with enlarged porcelain replicas of rustic breads.
Scattered throughout the gallery, Queenland’s sculptures lie in
cornucopian baskets, dangle from the ceiling on long industrial chains,
and rest on bases inspired by the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi. By
casting his breads in porcelain, the artist removes all practical
purpose, aligning them with the decorative and whimsical qualities
already inherent to balloons. The absurd combination of these two
disparate elements questions conventional distinctions between objects,
and their formal arrangements hint at undertones of sexuality.
In addition to these sculptures, Queenland presents a new series of
color photographs, enlarged snapshots of a snowy night viewed from the
window of his Brooklyn apartment. Queenland aims to extend the liminal
state evoked by his sculptures and photographs through the construction
of a blank, unoccupied hallway, capped by two doors, which serves as a
threshold from the front gallery into the smaller rear space.