This Could Save Your Life

THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
Installation by Jessee Rose Crane and Philip Jerome Lesicko

January 9th – February 4th, 2015

Join us this January as the Kranzberg Arts Incubator opens its 2015 season with “THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE,” the provocative show by Jessee Rose Crane and Philip Jerome Lesicko.

Jessee Rose Crane and Philip Jerome Lesicko have been collaborating together for ten years as artists, writers, and musicians. “THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE,” has been a recurring theme for all aspects of their expressions, referencing the discoveries they have made through their co-performance across the country—expressly seen in their current band THE FUNS—as well as the challenges of navigating their long-term professional and personal relationships.  Marrying punk aesthetics with raw construction materials and found objects, they produce work that challenges social standards through a balance of genuine intensity and intentional repetition.

In his large-scale collages, Lesicko comments on traditional American values and commercial success. Working almost exclusively with black and white Xerox, he explores how the constrictions of minimal resources fuels his creativity and forces him to hyper-concentrate his vision, a challenge that extends to the sculptural frames that surround his work. Lesicko believes that it is important to find humor and irony in today’s culture and view society through the lens of a working class ideology, ideas reflected in his work as he finds meaning and transcendence in the everyday mundane.

Crane is a multidisciplinary sculptor who utilizes salvaged, saved, and ordinary materials. Through careful assemblage and manipulation she transforms and elevates these objects to construct a grander narrative that encompasses a larger series of social issues and conjures contemplative responses. Her series “Worldly Wealth,” confronts the mounting gap between rich and poor in a culture that is encouraged to consume and dispose.  Congruently, her video, “Telegenic Emanation,” references the violence against women casually present in film and television, as the artist is seen cocooned in yarn, and then cut free in a lengthy, deliberate, and repetitive process.  In Crane’s hands, paper, plastic, wood, and string become tools for protest through which the artist’s observations are reflected.

“THIS COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE” invites introspection and reflection on metamorphosis as we are confronted with some of the most pressing issues within our society.  Please join us at the Kranzberg Arts Incubator as we welcome the New Year with this transformative show.