MARGARITAVILLE // March 19 - April 16, 2021

Margaritaville

Grayson Cox

Kevin Dudley

Simone Kearney

George Skoufas

Hollis Witherspoon

Good Naked (Brooklyn NY) is pleased to present its fifteenth exhibition Margharitaville, opening March 19 from 8-9pm and running through April 16, 2021.

The artists in this exhibition take up research and observation with sincerity and pause. They approach their subjects with an openness to moments of wit and speculation. The wry, repetitive, and loving nature of the resulting work yields space for darkness and humor.

Kevin Dudley's Basic/Basic, 2020 is narrated with a reading from L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics (Prenatal Experience and Birth) and layered with Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville refrain.  The recorded chapter describes the inevitability of inheriting and being burdened by aberrations/traumas outside of our control and a collective rejoicing in the salvation of dianetic therapy.  Dudley's video documents his virtual construction of a Kinkade-inspired cottage rendered in digital space ad infinitum.  The walls of the cottage are built with stock materials and shelter a fully adorned snowman.  As the video takes course we watch Dudley's face zone into the monotony of process.  The tonal dissonance of voiceover, text, and image speaks to the make-believe nature of this purported science and calls our attention to a common desire for healing and escaping the static and immovable.

Simone Kearney combines text and image with fluid associations and overlaps as her recitation of a long-form poem sits casually against the backdrop of a spinning image bank, which pulls in and out of direct contact with spoken words and phrases.  Wandering thoughts and fleeting textures line peripheral headspace as we are invited to float within her particular sphere of observation and reflection.

Hollis Witherspoon and Grayson Cox began their video collaboration during a residency in Venice, Italy.  Witherspoon's practice as an artist, performer, and drama theorist often involves mining real life encounters/conversations which she filters through the lens of improvisational theatre.  Their karaoke version of Donna de Lory's rendition of the Sanskrit Mantra "Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu" marks a personal response to daily practice.  Having taken up yogic study during her time in Italy, Witherspoon found herself repeating/chanting this mantra at the end of each class session. At first taken by the absurdity of attempting to find peace in casually diseminated and culturally appropriated group ritual, she found herself surprised by the calm that soon overwhelmed her original skepticism.  Witherspoon and Cox set to film content that pokes at the nature of spiritual seeking, wrought with the problematic complexity of grand expectations, surface investigations, and unresolved realizations.

George Skoufas' editing transformed their video into an interactive karaoke reel.  Their first live performance of this content will encourage viewers to take up this phrase in song with exuberance and spirit.  In a collective refrain they invite a gathering of energy and movement toward peace through humor and laughter at the vulnerability of sharing and acknowledging unknowing.

Each artist in their own way searches for a kind of connectivity and resolution that we often long for and rarely find. The absurd is present in the disjuncture between content and form and yet there is comfort in the seeking.

The opening of Margaritaville will take shape as a virtual video roulette where viewers will be offered an opportunity to hop between works and interact via chat with fellow participants.

For more information and images, please contact info@goodnakedgallery.com.