Contributed by Riad Miah / John O’Connor’s tools are basic and everyday, materials that one might think a child would use for their initial foray into art making. For his works on paper, many now on display in his solo exhibition “Man Bites Dog Bites Man” by way of Pierogi and L’SPACE, he uses colored pencils and graphite. But behind the simple tools is a discerning mind. In turn, his system of composition – sometimes cyclical, per the title of the show – suggests a Rube Goldberg machine, bringing to mind artists such as Mel Bochner and Tom Friedman, and, reaching farther back, Alfred Jensen.
O’Connor’s aim is not so much to find an answer as to ask, what if?. Zugzwang references the chess game between Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov and an IBM computer known as Deep Blue. Kasparov did not lose the game but resigned, noting, “I lost my fighting spirit.” O’Connor is indifferent about whether the computer or the human won the game. What grabs him is the fact that one of them function through Artificial Intelligence and lacks human instincts, and what that might mean in the larger scheme.
The work itself, of course, is handmade and therefore far removed from AI. O’Connor’s drawings, though, are loaded with sophisticated commentary, subtle but never unduly cryptic. They contain symbolic elements that are not classically representational, narratives and stories that are not literature, logos and brands that aren’t advertisements. They intimate utopia, or at least a less corrupted world apart. In Echo (Day 5), the shaped edges of the large sheet of paper seem to want to separate themselves from their support and exist as independent objects, a drop shadow underlining this aspirational separateness. Relatedly, his sculptures, inscribed with words, seem to reflect ideas in transition.
O’Connor’s inventive use of logos is especially notable. Interspersed with ordinary words, they enhance and complicate a drawing’s particular narrative by triggering crucial socio-political associations, all the while preserving visual fluidity and intellectual clarity. The lottery logos in Lenny, for example, advance a particular story while also reminding the viewer of “the perils of the lottery as a means of class suppression,” as O’Connor puts it. Implicit in this cynical frisson are sunnier notions of a better life. His works on paper thus transcend the ostensibly playful medium. Though they are brightly colored and drawn with a child’s implement, they convey existential irony, judgment, and – not least – hope.
“John O’Connor: Man Bites Dog Bites Man,” Pierogi Gallery in conjunction with L’SPACE, 524 West 19th Street, New York, NY. Through February 10, 2024.
About the Author: Artist and educator Riad Miah was born in Trinidad and Tobago and lives and works in New York City. He has exhibited with Lesley Heller Workspace, Rooster Gallery, and Sperone Westwater Gallery. His 2022 solo show was at Equity Gallery in New York.
