Taking a concept designed to limit results from a search engine, Danny McDonald has created a series of sculptures that use this idea to restrict and define his characters’ narratives. The exhibition, titled “Search Parameters,” marks McDonald’s third solo exhibition at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi in Berlin, where the show runs until June 23, 2018.Danny McDonald uses this exhibition to focus on the concept of a search parameter, which is essentially a character or a string of characters used in a search engine query to narrow the focus of a search. The artist uses this concept in a literary quest that very literally becomes a character-defining journey limited by obstacles and conflicts to be overcome. He addresses the fact that what search nowadays is traded as a valuable commodity and then used to better predict and deform our actions as consumers, an idea for many that is destined to end in disaster. We become anxious when we come across uncomfortable facts, which leads us to divert our minds into unknowable or pretentious logic in order to find relief. In this new series of sculptures, McDonald has constructed dreamlike and nightmarish narratives depicting characters from popular culture such as Sherlock Holmes, C-3PO, Pinocchio, Liberace, James Dean & Marlon Brando, Ronald McDonald, The Devil, Uncle Sam and various other monsters and characters that are regularly searched. Found objects, including masks, toys, props, statuettes and action figures, are stacked and posed projecting a symbolic attitude. The artist repurposes and illustrates these created characters in a comedic and shocking manner to portray a still and mind provoking state.“In ‘Searching for Reassuring Statistics Regarding Classical Proportions,’ a fully articulated action figure version of Michelangelo’s David straddles a photographer's antique grain focusing device, framing his tiny penis in the scope of the lens. ‘Searching for Anonymity’ shows the Star Wars android C-3PO wearing a gold masquerade mask with his right arm replaced by a gold bull whip which descends and binds his legs. In ‘Searching for the Perfect Place to Store Files,’ a flaming volcano sits perched atop two overturned file cabinets whose contents are being destroyed in the fire by Sauron, villain of The Lord of the Rings, while Uncle Sam has become Gollum, leashed to his captor,” writes the gallery. This exhibition is on view from April 28 through June 23, 2018 at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Schoneberger Ufer 61, 10785 Berlin, GermanyFor details please visit: http://bortolozzi.com/Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the exhibition.http://www.blouinartinfo.comFounder Louise Blouin
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