magnetostrophe

source: laimyours

Made In L.A. is coming to the Hammer, Barnsdall Park, LAXART, and billboards around town on June 2 and will showcase sixty emerging, under-recognized Los Angeles artists–one of which will be voted to win a $100,000 prize. In order to help you make an educated vote this summer, we’re counting down to Made In L.A. by showcasing each artist participating in the biennial.

David Snyder is a Los Angeles based artist who works in installation and video, his pieces often concentrating on the absurdity of life in the twenty first century.

Snyder plays in multiple mediums from video pieces to sculpture to mixed media installation and drawings. They all have vague references to cultures, dipping into popular, Internet, and even food culture. His piece Poltergeist: “Live” At The Biltmore sees a theatrical (“theatrical”) representation of both the movie and the concept of a poltergeist as a person covered in a sheet with a ghost face rearranges tables in a grand dining room, the effect being a little silly and giving a comedic face to the spooks that may be behind these antics. Hush Lil’ Baby, above, sees a man coddling and trying to get through to his “baby,” the baby being a power saw which he pets, tries to pacify, feeds, and eventually cradles. Men be loving tools, amirite?

Toward A Common Misunderstanding best exemplifies Snyder’s work, which sees a man (we’re assuming Snyder) reading a manifesto or philosophy with images from the Internet that are a funny affront to the words being said, images of Snuggies being related to “good design,” the word “absorb” being juxtaposed with the image of a Shamwow, and a poster for Star Wars shown as the words “of the past” are spoken. It’s a funny, Internet cultural piece that has a very grave undertone from the text being read. His recent Michael Benevento show Face Forward had a similar feel, he constructing faces into walls and on buildings, exemplifying the Internet culture of #ISeeFaces and Faces In Places. His creations had a bit of a darkness to them, a sound installation playing throughout the piece evoking and clarifying a mania inherent in “seeing faces” in things that are faceless.

Snyder’s work is undoubtedly very complex and layered, so much to them beyond the surface. We’re not really sure what he’ll be bringing to Made In L.A. as his work is incredibly varied.