FELIX BEAUDRY: THE GLOB MOTHER

Jan 13 - Feb 19, 2023
Opening Friday, Jan 13, 6 - 8pm

SITUATIONS presents Felix Beaudry’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, titled “The Glob Mother.” The exhibition title references the 1953 children’s book, The Glob––where a cute, mucky creature presents the Darwinian stages of evolution. Beaudry’s show is composed of machine-knit figurative works, each of which demonstrate different ways of making. Spliced cyborgian figures emerge through codified concepts of space, made possible using programmable knitting machines. The gap between Beaudry’s initial visual projection, and what is actually born from the machine, beautifully mirrors transition as a space of desire.

At Beaudry’s studio in Kingston, NY, he programs patterns and imagery into a Stoll machine to create the form. His process involves converting an abstract idea of dimensional form into a flat image, that image is then processed through the computer to knit stitches on the machine. The resulting fabric expands and contracts in areas to create a dimensional skin, which is either stuffed or left loose.

Felix Beaudry’s titular work, The Glob Mother is entangled with Lay Z Boy on a 70’s looking couch covered in a decorative woven pattern. This tableau is born from the idea of putting on different skins, how we deal with the mess of the body. The two figures recline and take up space, which can be horrific and awkwardly monstrous. Beaudry plays on a reference to La-Z-Boy recliners. Lay Z Boy wears a sweater of skin, and skin pants, socks and gloves. In creating these skin garments, the artist imagines a world where we can take our skin on and off.

The window sill has a small plinth with a two-faced machine-knit bust, titled Tadpole. On the wall above, a face is pinned to the wall, excess fabric like the skin from the neck and back of the scalp is stretched and flayed to mimic a picture plane. Named for his father, Peter Beaudry, the fabric on the face extends like skin not fully attached to form – a shroud, a flap.

Flying Lessons, a tapestry hanging on the wall, illustrates four figures on top of a rocky mountain. The central figure is a light peachy hue, her body is rippled and her face somber. She is surrounded by three magenta figures, one of which is held over her head, about to be hurled off a cliff. The other two figures flank her to watch. Beaudry likens this figure to the final boss in a video game, where the hero faces an exaggerated tangle of their weaknesses and fears, something grand to end the game, a confrontation of the shadow-self.

Tapestry references the medieval, presents allegory, and asks to be read like a story or a morality tale. Yet, Beaudry’s The Glob Mother eliminates the virtues attached to finding the authentic self and allows for multiplicity. He generates using fantasy, and from desire. [text by Jillian McManemin]

FELIX BEAUDRY (b. 1996 Berkeley, CA; lives and works in Kingston, NY) Beaudry graduated with a BFA from RISD in 2018. Beaudry has held solo exhibitions at SITUATIONS, NYC and group exhibitions include The Bunker, West Palm Beach, FL; RISD Museum, Providence; New Discretions, Catskill, NY; ltd, LA; and Tatjana Pieters; Ghent, Belgium.