A slate of concrete with blue Skittles scattered across it is illuminated by a clamp light in Full Haus’ current outdoor exhibition: “Andy Robert: Heavy Rain and Lightning.” Titled Dream Deferred (Skittles on Concrete), this simply executed sculpture seems commonplace enough: “‘Skittles and pavement’ were the words circling around me when I was coming to conclusions about the Trayvon Martin case,” explains Robert. “‘What happens to a dream deferred?'” asked Robert, echoing the opening line of Langston Hughes’s poem which is also in the press release for the show. Does it “‘crust and sugar over— / like a syrupy sweet…or does it explode?'”
Dream Deferred (Skittles on Concrete)
Concrete, skittles 35 x 35 x 2 inches 2015, photo by Janna Avner
Robert’s outdoor sculptures and installations reinforce the disturbing evidence in the Trayvon Martin case by responding to a particular fact: the Skittles and Arizona iced tea Martin had on him (and no weapon) during the time of his shooting. These items, Robert imagines, represent a loss of childlike innocence, social injustice and stunted dreams. Robert’s outdoor sculptures and installations also reveal his burgeoning semiotics as an open system with slippages in meaning.
When associated with a murder trial gone awry, Dream Deferred opens the viewer to a deadly absent referent (a lost life) and the work’s mundanity becomes an uncomfortable, suffocating silence—one that is associated with the lexicon of our cultural trauma over recent, preventable gun shootings.
Sometimes It Rains
Umbrella, fan blades, spray stone, metal 28 x 46 x 27 inches
2014
After all, how does one memorialize injustice? An article from The Guardian states that Martin’s bag of Skittles remains unopened to this day and should “belong in a museum.” Perhaps this is so, but what if we open this bag, like Robert does, because nothing is ever neatly contained, nor remains immaculate forever? Many believe that the circumstances of Martin’s death reflect a callous disregard for human life, reminding us of the frailty of our mortality while also violating our sense of ethics. Robert’s work captures a nationwide lack of control and confusion that many feel over Martin’s case—and every other recently—that now speckles America’s consciousness as the awful “new normal.”
Andy Robert: Heavy Rain and Lightning
December 6th – January 31st
Full Haus
2042 Griffith Park Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90039
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