Ruppersberg’s use of antithesis creates conflict – one word in the binary pair wields more power than the other: text over margin, us over them and so forth. The stark black and white adds emphasis to the resulting narrative tension, one that is familiar to us as readers but even more so as human beings.
Allen Ruppersberg said ‘My art is about what is common and particular to everyone.’
Hanging from a large circular installation in the centre of the room are Ruppersberg’s own versions of ‘cordels’ containing words and images from his own extensive collections. These include poems, magazines, postcards, posters, slides, film-stills and books.
It was Ruppersberg's seemingly passive use of the commonplace as a ‘material’ to work with, that distinguished him in the LA art scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has run through his long established career of 30 years.
The images in the ‘cordels’ depict empty landscapes, empty motel lobbies, empty restaurants, empty streets, or isolated, immobile monuments; these Hopper-esque scenes are, in Ruppersberg's view, pregnant with something about to appear, sites where stories are about to happen.
The books explore loneliness, self-discovery, alcohol, misogyny, throwaway culture, male friendship and transitory ‘cowboy’ lifestyles. These themes are still very much of the Beat era.
Allen Ruppersberg's exhibition is a comment on popular culture of mid 20th Century America: an interesting amalgamation of cultural mythologies, narratives and the common truths of everyday life.
It coincides with an exhibition by Wallace Berman, the ‘father’ of the Californian movement. Berman was a huge influence of Ruppersberg as well as other artists and poets merging from the Beat legacy of the Beat Generation.
