Curatorial statement for A Bargain at Twice The Price,
held at The Sugar Refinery in 1999

A Bargain At Twice The Price
Photographic Studies Augmented by Written Ruminations

The Witty, Hip, "In Your Face" Explanation

Walmart and London Drugs patrons have surely seen the rows of brass, silver and wooden frames and the weird photos held captive within. What purpose does the photo serve? Who took the photo? Are they meant to look good? Or good enough for now? Why do they all look like they come from the planet 1976? Why, why and more why.

Here, today, in the warm dusk of May, these questions are becomeing ever more answerable. A Bargain At Twice The Price praises these photos like they should be praised. Participating artists have choosen photos that expres their inner being, their inner ennui or their inner disgust and tersely articulated said ennui for our edification.

The Foppishly Dandy and Pretentious Explanation

Pity the ostracised motel painting. (The panoramic paintings found in motels, as opposed to paintings of motels). Adequate enough not to arouse criticism, perfunctory without invoking praise, and — most importantly — never good enough to make theft a consideration.

Background music in a hip cafe, or elevator Muzak provides an innocuous soundtrack to the main dialogue and actions of the patrons and occupants. In a similar manner, these paintings provide a muted backdrop for tired businessmen and furtive newlyweds.

Now consider the "photos" that are included free with the purchase of most frames, especially of the brass variety. They contain a more pronounced transitory aesthetic — their existence often a mystery. Do these pictures prove the frame is assembled and fully operational? Is this the analogous counterpart to batteries included? Are the pictures meant to be so bad that the frame shines even more brightly under the neon light of the mall outlet it inhabits or do the photo and the frame have a complex symbiosis that only the most insidious marketer and retailer understand?

Perhaps these photos don't deserve a second thought. If our consumer culture teaches us anything, it is that the design of mass produced items reflects their disposable nature. Function over form is the credo that drives the purchase of millions of Bic pens and lighters.

But the elegance and simplicity of a Bic razor can be compelling or even attractive. For some artists, beauty — or more accurately, beautiful kitsch — is contained in the everyday. Apply a translucent lacquer of irony to a velvet masterpiece discovered at the gallery of Salvation Army and the seemingly mundane becomes a living room centerpiece. Who painted it? Why? Many of these paintings ask questions that will never be conclusively answered. They force the viewer to impose a narrative upon a painting the artist never thought twice about. The dialogue between object and audience, while often of the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 variety, is dialogue none-the-less. The reactions elicited are genuine — genuine confusion, genuine disgust, genuine admiration.

Unlike thrift store paintings, frame photos have been touched by a professional, or at least an aspiring professional. Despite this, they possess a surreal quality, often providing hallucinatory moments of pure translucence and bliss that no two people experience in exactly the same manner.

These stopgap occupants contain wonderful stories, and A Bargain At Twice The Price: A Celebration of Intermediary Imagery features artists interpreting and championing an anthology of art orphan fiction. Those who would doubt the value of these stories need only to remember that Marcel DuChamp proved almost any everyday object could be art, or that Malcolm McLaren's promotional savvy proved even the Sex Pistols could be successfully marketed as genius.

— Ryan Bigge, May 1999