The Party's Over
Installations and Photography
Joey Enos and Craig Doty
Curated by Elaine Santos
June 8th - July 14th, 2007
In the twilight hours, all good-spirited festivities come to an end. One must sober up, assess the damage, and collect on all the happenings of the heightened experience they just witnessed. As hazy memories float away, left behind are the remnants of a good time. Under sweat stained confetti, behind the apple carved pipes, below the crushed empty beer can, and the cigarette burned carpet inhabits the work of Joey Enos and Craig Doty.
The work of these artists is united by the feeling that the festivities were over by the time they arrived. And they take this feeling to have broader, historical significance for the current moment - all parties end but this time the party is over. From the individual experiences of unburdened youth and excitement, to the generational ideas of the "American experience," the artists explore the moment of becoming fully aware a time has permanently changed.
Doty and Enos articulate this sense of change with a non-linear approach to history, integral to their art making processes. Instead of recording the events that led up to a specific moment they reconstruct pieces of events that have been left behind. They retell the life of a party by starting with the physical and emotional aftermath; torn decorations, left over food, passed out people, spilled drinks, pranks, and vandalism.
Working independently on these themes, the artists have created a party ghost town that echoes the longing to know what one has missed out on. Craig Doty's photography and Joey Enos' installations walk between comical and disturbing, fantasy and reality. Doty's work reconstructs the emotional and physical turmoil that individuals cause and experience during a party. His portraits range from young men crying to young men unknowingly de-faced. Enos explores the imprints individuals make on their environments during a party. Enos' sculpture reveals garish excessiveness by combining fantastic foam and aluminum tubes with mundane party waste including decorations, popcorn, and cups.
About the artists
Although both Bay Area natives Doty and Enos first met in their undergrad years at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Enos came back to the Bay to finish his BFA in Painting at the San Francisco Art Institute and has shown most recently at Lobot Gallery and Boontling Gallery in Oakland. Doty received his MFA in Photography at Yale University School of Art in 2006 and has shown most recently at Baumgartner Gallery, New York.
