Soda gun
2020 Acrylic on canvas stretched over wood panel 241.9 x 216.5 x 5.4 cm / 95 1/4 x 85 1/4 x 2 1/8 in
In an ongoing series that began earlier this year, Avery Singer continues to construct the narrative of Bird bar, a bar named after the resident cockatoo who has notoriously void excrement within the establishment. While the banalized social scene is a product of Singer’s digitalized universe, specific details and imagery allude to a contemporary reality to which the artist is attuned. The bar itself, for example, is a satirical ode to a conventional dive bar in New York, the city where Singer was born and raised. Furthering her engagement with three-dimensional computer modeling and digital applications, Singer pushes the boundaries of painting as a traditional discipline by imbuing it with modern sensibilities and technologies.
In previous portraits of the same series, the viewer meets a handful of singular characters, including Maximilien de Robespierre as well as a female figure who attempts his assassination. In 'Soda gun', we meet a familiar female protagonist donning an artist’s beret, who is in the midst of being sprayed by spiked sparkling water. The represented figure is one that the artist identifies with on a physiological level. Layers of varying textures constitute the liquid that defies gravity and creates the perception of depth of field. What emerges upon further inspection of the digitally rendered soda water is internet iconography, such as the recurring Wojak meme that appears again and again in Singer’s oeuvre.
Avery Singer (b. 1987) was born and raised in New York. Growing up in a creative community, Singer experimented with photography, film, and drawing. In 2008, Singer studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, and in 2010, she received her B.F.A. from Cooper Union, New York. During her studies, Singer engaged in performance art, video making, as well as sculpture utilizing carpentry, metal casting, and welding. After graduation, she discovered her chosen art form from an unanticipated experiment with SketchUp. Since then, Singer has employed the binary language of computer programs and industrial materials in order to remove the trace of the artist’s hand while engaging the tradition of painting and the legacy of Modernism.