The Korn Gallery is hosting “Nightcrawlers,” a sculptural exhibition by visiting artist Andrew Brehm.
Through the double doors of the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts and straight back into its art enclave rests the softly-lit, four-cornered Korn Gallery. An often understated feature of Drew’s campus, its quarterly rotation of resident artists grants students a unique glimpse into the contemporary art world. This connection is two-way; the visiting artists also get the opportunity to experience Drew.
Now, sculptures that span all shapes and sizes flood the gallery space, bursting in explosions of texture and color, both mechanical and natural.
“In my mind, ‘Nightcrawlers’ is a little ambiguous. On one hand, you could have an association with nightcrawlers—fishing—which is really sort of wholesome,” the exhibition’s creator, multimedia artist Brehm, said. “And then there’s also ‘nightcrawlers,’ like creatures of the night…characters or people out in the evening who might present a darker, more sinister vibe. I’m interested in attaching words that have the same sort of ambiguity as what’s presented; things aren’t always what they first appear. ‘Nightcrawlers’ was able to represent both those things.”
The show’s namesake, an aluminum piece that rests just beyond the gallery doors, encapsulates this juxtaposition. A salmon-colored worm snakes its way through recycled soil, a subtle smile on its oval face.
“I think of it as an ouroboros. An ouroboros is typically a snake consuming its own tail. [The piece] is anything but a perfect circle…the worm is examining its own tail, not consuming it. A nearly ouroboros. That symbol means the regeneration of life,” said Brehm while describing the piece’s thematic context.
This creative use of medium, found objects and discarded waste paper, is purposefully identifiable throughout Brehm’s works. The large, black shell, titled “Red Roe,” that sits further into the gallery, when lifted to display its pearl, uses parts from a pair of crutches in its mechanics. The funky-patterned animal-print carpet spread out across the floor proudly displays the places where Brehm cut out its stains.
With this technique, he not only repurposes the objects but also allows their previous lives to transform the overall work through their individuality.
When asked about how he conceptualizes this relationship, Brehm gave an easy explanation. “There’s a conversation [between the artist and the object] that if you can get good at, is very real—there’s a real give and take. You’re in your studio talking to yourself—and a couple of inanimate objects. To me, that’s a dynamic that’s really important.”
The dynamic between artist and medium is an essential aspect of the artistic process. In both his words and work, Brehm emphasized the importance of respecting an object’s past and the value of reusing rather than purchasing.
“A lot of these materials were really close to being gone forever…floating down the river after breaking from a barge, fragments of foam that are on their way to being pure waste, retiring in a way,” he said. “I’m grabbing them right before they go, saying ‘you’re not done, you’ve got more work to do,’ and pulling them back into another organism. I like thinking of the work as being part of a cycle as well, and for some of the found objects, part of that cycle is finding their way back to a starting point.”
Although Brehm’s expansive art practice often extends past the reaches of physical reality— frequently including video and audio experiments—his love for found objects has a notable influence on almost every piece he creates.
Brehm said he always worked with found objects. He explained that even before he went to school to learn about art, he was repurposing objects in ways that were different from their original function. Finding new life for the objects he sculpted is like a puzzle for him.
“It’s a very satisfying puzzle to solve. It’s something about seeing a lot of potential in objects. The puzzle is more interesting when the objects have history…when it’s an old object, it might have a history which gives the object a whole different layer of interest that could charge the object in some way because you know it’s been serving a function for a long time, and you’re stepping into its life cycle. I welcome things becoming deeper, richer, mysterious…they’ve lived their own lives.”
Another important part of this cycle is the exhibition’s interactive elements. Colorful lights spin out from behind an accordion-paneled floor piece. A wooden door frame, built of recycled paper bricks, invites a viewer to open and close it—to step into the unreal reality of “Nightcrawlers.” To be a nightcrawler, it seems, is to be open about life’s inherent duality; new pieces from old materials, history as the future purpose of an object and simultaneously the foundation of its diverse identity.
The Korn Gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., and also by appointment. For more information, please contact korngallery@drew.edu.
Featured image courtesy of the Drew Art Department instagram.
Annabelle Smith is a sophomore double-majoring in studio art and media and communications.
