In this series of new works, David Darts explores and playfully confronts uncomfortableness through sculpture, video, and photography. The exhibition approaches discomfort primarily as a generative state, even if the experience itself is not always pleasant, which can lead to intellectual growth and provide artistic inspiration. From the trauma of a childhood drowning incident to the dysfunctions associated with misophonia, literally a hatred of certain sounds, he uses video, photography, and sculpture to examine the social and domestic aberrations that have resulted from his own lived discomforts.
Darts “frames” the exhibition with an irreverent manifesto titled Discomfort which celebrates the range of contrary outcomes produced by discomforting art. He wrote this piece in conversation with a 1961 text written by Claes Oldenburg and passages from the Discomfort text appear throughout the show. Darts uses discomfort as an artistic tool for capturing our attention and imagination. He explains that we’re often overwhelmed by visual and social stimuli in our daily lives and so experiencing or witnessing things that are disconcerting or off-putting can be strangely meaningful and memorable.
Exhibited at NYU Abu Dhabi Project Space Gallery and included on the Abu Dhabi Art VIP Tour (November 12-25, 2018).
