Think Pink Radio

*Image by John Parot from Biological Exuberance

Western Exhibitions Gallery Address:
1821 W Hubbard, Suite 202
Chicago, IL 60622

Biological Exuberance dates:
November 17 to December 15, 2007

Gallery Hours:
Wednesday – Saturday, 12-6pm

Drawing from the periphery of everyday life, John Parot makes ordinary
objects interesting through unusual concepts. The top five Google
searches (sex, god, jobs, music and a rotating cast of celebrities)
are recurrent favorites in Parot’s work. We have searched to find sex
or god or Paris Hilton online, and in Parot’s work the answers are
elusive. His work nods to urban gay-life, pop art,
the Velvet Underground, John Waters and Project Runway, but the core lies
in what is deeply personal. Meticulous pen lines reminiscent of
tribal tattoos, textiles, African patterns or the inside of a fruit
are combined with lips and eyes cut out from photos of beautiful boys that
imitate, enhance, collide with and finally dislocate the image.
As soft blue and hot pink gossamers of painted yarn surround
cases of diet coke, vodka, obsolete computer disks, VHS, Polaroids,
candles, a tape player and mirrors, the installation is instantly
striking but given time, we see the humor. Diet Coke is
painted black leaving the word “diet”, a pink triangle is made
bleak in black paint except for a dripping heart, a hot boy has two sets of eyes.
The most beautiful work is quietly on the side, in the back of the of
the gallery. Drawings in gouache and black pen cover porn and fashion,
hiding them in layers of pattern and shadow. Underneath the black is a
private joy that is too erotic or too painful to reveal, but in an
ecstatic moment the line leaps from the page in a filament of yarn
tacked to the wall falls onto the floor, no sadness just the grab of
surprise.

–Justin Polera