The Deconsumptionists Art as Archive 2009 - in OSMOS Magazine Issue 20
Aside from their individual long-term ventures into sculpture, painting, photography and ceramics Paul Lamarre and Melissa Wolf are filmmakers from New York City who work collaboratively under the name EIDIA (see Manifesto). Together, they also serve as co-directors of EIDIA House, a Brooklyn-based meeting place and forum for artists, scholars, poets, writers, architects and others interested in “idée force” the arts as an instrument for positive social change. EIDIA’s practice is based on ‘aesthetic research’ and often times can presents its form through multimedia installation. Their endeavors explore the dynamics of art politics, social spaces, and the environment. EIDIA works are in numerous private collections, museums, art institutions and in over 200 prominent universities and colleges internationally—including the Getty Museum and Getty Research Institute.
INSTAGRAM 1
INSTAGRAM 2
EIDIA Manifesto Napkin 1978, Letterpress on napkin 1996, edition of 100
"FOOD SEX ART the Starving Artist’s Cookbook / Video Archive" at RYAN LEE Gallery NYC, NY July 11-August 10 2018 curated by Arthur Fournier.
"The Milk Glass Table R4" 2004-present
"The Ball Game" 2005-present
Like any ball game wherein the players passionately play to win as if they were "gods" seeking to control the universe—using any and all tactics of play—the EIDIA Ball Game is put forward as a symbol of the earth- you to decide how you choose to play it. What is the earth for you as you hold it in your hand? You can play the game in a stupid fashion, or you can choose to be responsibly intelligent, given the earth is a ‘ball’ on which you and future generations depend on to survive. EIDIA’s “Ball Game" is an installation of balls of various histories, traditions, and compositions which are perched on fifty - 5x5x5 inch custom cut honed finish solid white Carrara marble cubes which are spaced 3 to 10 feet apart on an exhibition floor so the viewer can walk between and perhaps grab a ball and join the game. Four balls are custom cast solid bronze, embossed with the EIDIA logo and with Greek God’s names such as Zeus and Hermes. Visitors to The Ball Game hold the bronze ball in their hand as they stroll between the varied balls on the marble cubes. As gods gaze down at their earth they contemplate what games they will play with their “blue planet.” From a cat's eye marble to a basketball or cricket or ping pong or golf ball, the game is on. It is your play.
"Collages" 1976-present
EIDIA’s collage / ‘bricolages’ represent a key aspect of EIDIA's 'aesthetic research' by transforming accumulations-of readymades, if you will, into an aesthetic displacement. These assemblages are montaged images culled from the propaganda organs of the 1950’s -60’s -70’s that served to promote the consumerist ethos as the raison d'être of American life. The collages plummet the depths of the ’collective memory’ contrasting images of revolution, violence, protest and war with the ‘objects of desire’ sex, cars, fashion, fast food and beautiful homes. This work is also influenced by the "Cut-Ups" of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin, the "Combine" paintings of Robert Rauschenberg, the Shadow Boxes of Joseph Cornell and photo montages by Gilbert and George.
The Collage works are composed on most recently found materials such as Record Album Covers, Vinyls, Surf Boards, and Skateboard Decks and archival rag ,1975 to the present in varying sizes from 4 x 9 feet to 4 x 5 inches. They are in numerous collections along with other EIDIA and EIDIA House works.
The Collage works are composed on most recently found materials such as Record Album Covers, Vinyls, Surf Boards, and Skateboard Decks and archival rag ,1975 to the present in varying sizes from 4 x 9 feet to 4 x 5 inches. They are in numerous collections along with other EIDIA and EIDIA House works.
"ROY G BIV" impasto paintings 1985-1989
The ROY G BIV impasto paintings are a series of nearly 30 paintings and sculptures ranging in numerous sizes between, 9"x16" and 17" X 7 foot, on wood bases executed by EIDIA and an intern in a tiny art studio in the famous 611 "Cable Building" in SoHo. The pigment formula was invented and developed by Lamarre while being mentored by Jerome Kamrowski the noted New York Abstract Expressionists (and Surrealist) who headed the painting department at the University of Michigan. Kamrowski also had previously mentored the artist Mike Kelley.
The intended style of the work was EIDIA's response to the burgeoning trend in artist run galleries like International with Monument, and Nature Morte know as “Neo-Geo.” This was during the period of the Post-Modernistim in the East Village art scene with artists like, Jeff Koon, Meyer Vasiman, Peter Halley and Mark Dagley. When these artists started to show in commercial galleries the passion and innovation of the movement pretty much petered out. With these works EIDIA mocked the idea of the commodified art trends and comments on how irksome the frivolous the art world is.
© 2021 EIDIA
The intended style of the work was EIDIA's response to the burgeoning trend in artist run galleries like International with Monument, and Nature Morte know as “Neo-Geo.” This was during the period of the Post-Modernistim in the East Village art scene with artists like, Jeff Koon, Meyer Vasiman, Peter Halley and Mark Dagley. When these artists started to show in commercial galleries the passion and innovation of the movement pretty much petered out. With these works EIDIA mocked the idea of the commodified art trends and comments on how irksome the frivolous the art world is.
© 2021 EIDIA
"The Psychiatrist’s Office American Battle For Abundance" 2010-2015
A visitor to the psychiatrist’s office sits in the chair, reads the pamphlets, and ponders their failed American Dream. “The Psychiatrist’s Office” is an installation (or play) composed to suggest a darker calculated history to the current cybernetic disruption of common social interactions. Like a warped waiting room out of a Sam Beckett play, a wall of panoramic photographs showing hundreds of people standing and sitting in groups—backdrop a black Naugahyde (faux leather) chair that has on its seat, pamphlets created for the expanding consuming public by Fordian corporations, post World War II—with titles such as: “The Magic of Your Telephone” and “American Battle For Abundance.” As with the organizing of society into groups, and with the invention of Psychiatry, these pamphlet propagandize promoted social networking vis-à-vis mass communications and reinforced social class representational imagery, to coalesce participation in the division of labor. This emblematic “collectivism” in turn is promoted in the name of democracy reflected in the panoramic photos; and where the one true master—CORPORATISM—remains cloaked from view.
A visitor to the psychiatrist’s office sits in the chair, reads the pamphlets, and ponders their failed American Dream. “The Psychiatrist’s Office” is an installation (or play) composed to suggest a darker calculated history to the current cybernetic disruption of common social interactions. Like a warped waiting room out of a Sam Beckett play, a wall of panoramic photographs showing hundreds of people standing and sitting in groups—backdrop a black Naugahyde (faux leather) chair that has on its seat, pamphlets created for the expanding consuming public by Fordian corporations, post World War II—with titles such as: “The Magic of Your Telephone” and “American Battle For Abundance.” As with the organizing of society into groups, and with the invention of Psychiatry, these pamphlet propagandize promoted social networking vis-à-vis mass communications and reinforced social class representational imagery, to coalesce participation in the division of labor. This emblematic “collectivism” in turn is promoted in the name of democracy reflected in the panoramic photos; and where the one true master—CORPORATISM—remains cloaked from view.