For Zain Burgess' upcoming solo show, Zain shows us new painting, sculpture, and video that meditates on his lasting interest to address the visual impact of our experiential relationship to media - mainly, how this simulacra influences our perception of reality. Zain specifically narrows his focus on our loss of introspection in the current economy. He creates a group of objects that attempt to address this loss in our modern system that creates new forms of attention value - a reality where advertisers fight for our labor of looking, replacing our spaces of necessary self contemplation with their imagery. He shows us a video of sequential explosions on television screens in an electronics store, on display for an oblivious consumer audience. He shows us a half-erased map of the world, and hints at a global amnesia; he creates a sculptural monument out of a car hood, beeswax, and pallets, recalling the role of traditional rites and rituals. Thus, the themes he injects into these images allow the objects to possess a mystical and experiential awareness. As a result, they call into question the traditional meanings embodied by the objects - yet also, they demand a different approach to classifying and understanding their interrelation.

Curated by Graeme Berglund and Polina Bachlakova