“THE FALL”
Michael Jones McKean, The Fall, 2019. 1000 year old pot, human bone, latex Momo mask, gas generator, atmospheric gases, analyzer and sensor equipment, computer, monitors, vitrine, steel base. (photo: Michael Jones McKean Studio)
Michael Jones McKean nestles strange assemblies of contemporary artifact inside stories of vastly more distributed process, as in his newest work, The Fall, where a 1,000-year-old pot, a human bone, and a latex Momo mask meet geologic time within an ancient atmosphere.
The Fall appears now in Total Collapse: Clay in the Contemporary Past, at the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, in El Paso, where it will be on view through Dec. 13, 2019. The traveling exhibition, curated by Andres Payan-Estrada, also will be shown at the Ceramics Research Center, at Arizona State University Art Museum, from Feb. 1 to June 27, 2020.
Many, many thanks to research scientist and Twelve Earths collaborator John VandenBrooks for making the trip to El Paso to advise installation, and to the National Endowment for the Arts, Sable Systems, and the Warhol Foundation for their support.
documentation
Top left and right: Installation of The Fall, 2019, at the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, in El Paso, Texas. The work was included in the exhibition Total Collapse, curated by Andres Payan-Estrada. Bottom left and right: Michael Jones McKean, The Fall, 2019. (photos: Michael Jones McKean Studio)