Lee DeCarava
Profile
DeCarava's body of work often deals with literary themes. Investigating eccentric characters and artists within well-known works of fiction, he attempts to visually render their artworks and ideas. Some pieces, such as 'Vasudeva's Boat' (from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha) and 'The Escalator' (from Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine) involve recreating scenes from books as interactive art installations.Artist Statement
"My work is exploratory. It is largely based on a set of questions I have been asking myself for more than 20 years. Why do we give literary fiction the power to manipulate us? What is the relationship between the thoughts of an author and thoughts he or she brings to life in a character? How could the ideas and characters born in great works of fiction be represented visually in our physical world? And perhaps most importantly - Why can't the visual artist be given the same freedoms that a writer of fiction is automatically granted?"Selected Works
Joseph Grand (from Albert Camus' The Plague) 2002
Despite a plague raging around him, the character of Joseph Grand, a lowly municipal clerk, attempts to make progress on a secret novel. Obsessed with words but unable to use them effectively, Grand can never get passed the first sentence. His huge manuscript, all variations of his single opening sentence, is eventually thrown into a fire.In addition to copying Grand's manuscript based on descriptions in the Camus' book (in both English and French), DeCarava exhibits his color-coded research notes and all the pages from the novel that refer to Joseph Grand. The work culminated in a filmed performance of the artist throwing all of his materials into a lit fireplace.
Brint Molke (from David Foster Wallace's The Suffering Channel) 2005
Referencing the 'abject' art of John Miller, who produces shit sculptures, and perhaps the canned feces of Italian artist Piero Manzoni, David Foster Wallace centers his novella The Suffering Channel around an artist (Brint Molke) who can mysteriously defecate intricately detailed shit sculptures. This ambitious story thematically deals with the role of the male author, the saturation of media culture, and the events of September 11th.As lithographs, DeCarava created visual representations of Brint Molke's shit sculptures described in the novella. These include the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe standing over an air vent and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the best-known sculptural works of ancient Greece.
In the story, Molke, feeling trapped by his wife's attempt to commercially exploit his unique talent, tries to reach out to a journalist by excreting for him a sculpture that simply says 'Help Me'. DeCarava turned this fictional cry for help into a short animated work as well as a limited edition poster.
