WORK presents Close Your Eyes and Look as Far as You Can See, a solo exhibition of works by RYAN V. BRENNAN.

A common outlook on life – both sincerely whimsical and discerningly naïve – is unveiled through multiple series’ of 3-D collage works, stop animation, site-specific installation, and handmade instructional books. Each project is a curious venture into deciphering an enigmatic world as magnetically magical as it is profoundly tragic.

Close Your Eyes and Look as Far as You Can See will feature four works from the artist’s Cinemallage Series, wall-hanging sculptures which are simultaneously the set and viewing platform for stop animation movies. Housed within each collage is a video player displaying chapters of a young man’s journey through a utopian fantasy. The stories employ the naïve language of fairytale as a vehicle to engage real issues in today’s society, evoking hope and community in a time of uncertainty and fear. (Web Address for Video Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70×3SU3XBc).

The artist’s Living Exercises project will be on display as documention of a series of performances done in and around New York City in the Summer and Fall of 2009. Recorded in the form of an instructional handmade book of exercises to be done alone, with friends, family and strangers, the series facilitates introspective, cathartic and enlightening experiences. Included with the handmade books are DVDs documenting several recent performances described within the book.

The exhibition will also feature a new body of sculptural works, Closure4Closure of Disdelightened Contemporaries, printed-paper collages reminiscent of pop-up books. Lavish dwellings are imploded and exploded in a sublime spectacle of fractured buildings, fire, clouds and rays of celestial light. Like the tragic yet entrancing beauty of a burning home, these pieces are an homage to the brazen and cunning thievery of those behind the recent mortgage crisis and how they continue to capitalize in its aftermath.

Additionally, the second iteration of Artist in Bathroom Residency: A Month-Long “Live” Performance Installation, will be on display. Spectators will be presented with the illusion that the artist has confined himself inside the gallery’s bathroom with a month’s rationing of food and water. Viewers can watch him via a “live” video and audio feed routed from the bathroom. In an array of emotionally charged performances the solitary artist critiques the art world in a fanatical and existential whirlwind of crazed romanticism, tragedy and humor. (Web address for Video Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbhzDNm6BPM)