MARFA –– Sam Dwyer presents ‘Eternal Rest,’ a sculptural installation by Sam Dwyer, questioning the role of dead artists in Marfa and imagining life after life, opens this week at Marfa Studio of Arts. Made with discarded fluorescent light fixtures and other choice elements from the recycling center and blended with Arthurian legend, this show is an electrified experience.
An opening party serving refreshments from the Marfa Spirit Co. and Miss Romi will be held at the Marfa Studio of Arts gallery at 6 p.m. Friday, March 8. All are welcome.
Statement from the artist:
Here in Marfa I am the coordinator for MSA’s “Studio in the Elementary School” (SITES) program, which means that I manage art teachers, purchase supplies and act as a primary point of contact and liaison for the program, all with the goal of teaching kids art. In my own teaching, I try to inspire the joy of creativity, autonomy, and technical skills that the kids of Marfa will need to become artists on their own.
This mission dovetails with many of the themes and ideas that are present in my sculpture show at MSA, although I do have to caveat that my work as an artist is not necessarily the position of our organization.
This installation, Sam Dwyer presents ‘Eternal Rest,’ uses pieces of Marfa to create an otherworld that challenges the concept and formation of Marfa as a funerary temple to dead artists. It is my contestation that the myths of the powers of the dead are being used to subjugate the living.
This is a systemic issue in the arts — of the 332 artists who will “participate” in the upcoming 2024 Venice Biennale, 52% are dead. As creators, we are being literally crowded by the incessant promotion of ghosts who really should be buried, but are kept animated in rite and ritual through patrimonial wealth.
Perhaps we need a stricter definition of contemporary art: it cannot be made by dead people. We certainly need a new value system; this systemic, mass consecration of the fallen is hostile to the living. What’s ironic is that this veneration of the dead would have been deeply unfashionable during the period at which most of the art under discussion here was being produced. The most “radical” part of radicalism is indifference to the past. But our modern culture demands servility to it.
One of my enduring interests as an artist is in myth-making. A central component of this installation invokes the legend of King Arthur — the “true” king, magically determined to rule. I always enjoyed these stories as a child, but revisiting them as an adult I’ve uncovered a new dimension that I’d previously never considered — their use as propaganda legitimating and justifying various medieval English kings, and in turn, the feudal social order. I held a real sword in my hand for the first time yesterday and wondered if any of my antecedents had done so — are we so different, now?