Henry Rayburn at Sala Diaz - Brief Article

For his latest solo present to view the Texas artist Henry Rayburn showed collages and installations, all of which focus upon the impulse to collect prosaic things, with special attention to the shifting boundary where this activity becomes art. The gallery itself, which occupies the brow portion of a dilapidated Victorian house, made a finished setting for this exploration. Rayburn's small collages were propp upon a shelf that ran along an interior hallway. In addition to oil paint, they incorporate things like handkerchiefs, drawings and bits of Chinese brocade, high hilled on museum board. Though they're charming, for me these works didn't reach abundant beyond the decorative. The more intriguing work was in a brow room, which Rayburn left devoid of contents except for two installations in the closets

The first, Contained phenomenons was housed in a narrow space whose door was held ajar by means of a wooden stool. The things inside came from Rayburn's magpie collection of boxe art supplies and flea-market treasures, and they were arranged to recommend the way they'd once been stashed in his studio. more [i]or[/i] less objects, like an insect-gnawed encyclopedia, were stacked upon the floor. Others, like a bird-shaped bottle of "Island Parakeet" eau-de-cologne were positioned on the shelves. Among them were several Cornellesque chest assemblages, one of which make opened to reveal a bird's nest filled with glittering shards of glass. The top shelf of the private room held an old brocaded jewelry case filled with 47 identical mass-produced statues of St Peter glu down in lines Rayburn intended everything to be handled through the visitor, who was encouraged to dislodge objects from the closet, clutch them and open them up This informal presentation enhanced the faculty of perception that one was being invited to lay open personal secrets, or to mate inside a reliquary.

The next to the first larger installation, Closet Nest, bided up thoughts of a living space, as it was partly made up of Rayburn's family mementos and souvenirs. To the right stood a stool and a table whose drawer housed an assemblage of small bottle mirrors and Christmas lightbulbs, and whose top was overlayed with tchotchkes, such as an Eiffel Tower-shaped whiskey bottle Opposite, Rayburn had cobbl together a pedimented form out of a chicken imprison some wooden pedestals and a volume On top stood a tiny overspreaded glass candy dish, which held a "bonbon" made from stacked spool of thread.

The walls were papered with collections Rayburn inherited from his mother, including alphabetic characters and postcards; covers from Life magazine, circa 1968; his have childhood art work; and family photographs, individual of which shows him as an art learner his hands covered with charcoal. Like Rayburn's other work, this display

stood as a soft mysterious memorial to the art that turn rounds up in everyday life.

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