The most emblematic of the ‘trophy’ moments in Ry Rocklen’s current show may be the perforated vertical standing locker cabinet, titled Ricky. With its exposed interior copper plating and cross-illuminated by the gallery light, it’s a handsome object that might serve any function but what it was originally designed for. Rocklen’s work here is about our not-so-ambivalent relationship to the past, our readiness to discard in one moment what we may celebrate in another. Ricky comes close to idealizing that impulse to aerate our memories, cross-illuminate and cross-ventilate the past, much as we might need to air out a locker. Our view of history is – as Rocklen might have it in one of his decaled flat-front and trisected ceramic sculptures – hollowed out, registered by degree. Yet memories remain unconsciously embedded – to be washed away in random reverie; and Rocklen offers a simulation of that blur of sensation, projection and fragmented memory in his shower installation (Textylz Display Panel). The hollow ceramics in their mirrored vitrines explicitly dissect that projection into an archaeology of dream and emotional detritus.

Honor Fraser Gallery
2622 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Show runs thru October 29, 2016