Justin Cooper: Spreadsheet

Justin Cooper is known for his site-responsive installations and comedic live performances that waver between satire and earnest art historical excavation. His newest work moves away from the undulating lines of his garden hose sculptures and investigates his drawing practice on a monstrous scale. Derived from a recent series of drawings based on repeated abstract forms placed in meticulous rows and columns, Spreadsheet attempts a similar strategy in a 3-dimensional manifestation. Cooper constructed Spreadsheet from a myriad of prefabricated, quotidian objects discreetly manipulated and combined into small sculptures. Although these objects (astroturf, binderclips, paper, wood, seashells, etc.) maintain their recognizable origins, Cooper employs them to emphasize their most basic formal elements: lines, circles, and colors. Creeping off the wall into greater relief with each successive row, Spreadsheet finally emerges as a full-fledged and completely functionless object multiplied by 10. Through the act of repetition, Spreadsheet becomes a systemized index of the deadpan gesture where quirky objects mingle yet remain resolutely straight-faced.

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Spreadsheet is curated by Jennie Lamensdorf and sponsored by the Time Equities Inc. (TEI) Art-in-Buildings. TEI is committed to enriching the experience of our properties through the Art-in-Buildings Program, an innovative approach that brings contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists to non-traditional exhibition spaces in the interest of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting environment for our building occupants, residents, and their guests.