JET TRASH

17 April through 29 May, 1999
Opening reception
Sat. April 17th, 6 to 9 pm

8642 Melrose Avenue – Los Angeles, CA 90069 – 310.659.5388 – fax 310.659.3169

We live in a society where mobility, replace ability and planned obsolescence are the norm. Where the concept of the avant-garde, the new, the shocking, carry a great deal of cultural and economic weight. Henry Vincent is acutely aware of this, and JET TRASH, his latest body of work, takes these issues head on.

He sees it everywhere, manifested in the obvious places: consumer products, movies/entertainment; society’s increasingly fickle audience. In this environment, how can an artist produce work which can achieve escape velocity from this voracious and vicious circle? Which focuses on these issues of mobility and
Replace ability while creating work that is meaningful and lasting?

Henry Vincent’s JET TRASH points the way. Rooted firmly in the post-modernist tradition, these works deal specifically with many facets and repercussions of the airline industry in modern society. The first time Vincent saw an aging Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet on blocks, being used for scrap, he realized how tenuous the lines are between use value and junk. The airline industry in particular represents a culmination of our drive for immediate gratification, for adventure and self-transformation. Henry Vincent’s exhibition references and appropriates the language which defines a segment of society so affected by conspicuous consumption, image and wealth, that the title of jet trash has become a cliché. In short, Henry Vincent’s JET TRASH is an exhibition which deconstructs on many levels of our cultures ideas of value, self-worth, self-transformation and consumption.