here comes the satisfaction – Brad Allen

Press Release
The Maillardville Cultural Appreciation Society is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent work by Brad Allen. In this show ubiquitous elements of everyday life are afforded a new and at times deviant consciousness through a series of sculptures and drawings. Permeated by a wry humour, these various reassessments of the commonplace redirect the intent but not the form of familiar signs. The works exists in proximity to the concerns of mass production and mass dissemination of both objects and printed matter, each presenting a discrepancy within an otherwise innocuous flow. Through estranging the function of things which are most easily ignored the work discovers a joy latent in the mundane.

What we wish we hadn’t said was never said
It is easy to talk on autopilot. The skin of ordinary conversation has become so thick that to side step real content is imperceptible as long as the form stays familiar. It’s not lying; it’s a way to simplify the trip through everyday. There is no way to live while continually repeating how bad things are, and regardless, everyone stops listening after the first warning. We keep a casual veneer, managing the attention each disaster merits to distance the inevitable drone of our usual anxieties. Love. Unemployment. Aliens. The thing to fear most is the thing that doesn’t make us afraid anymore.
When we were young we both had religious mindsets; we couldn’t discern importance on our own so we let other people tell us when it was present. There is no way to fully shake this way of thinking, just some ways to diminish it. When things become funny their importance shifts, the amount and the direction depends on how funny they are. There’s a natural preference here for dry absurdity because it demands an uncomfortable honesty that should be more present. It also makes things harder to end poetically because that’s not natural.