April - December, 2022
So & So Books
719 N Person St
Raleigh NC, 27604
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
Employing both the loosely figurative pre-impressionism of J. M. W. Turner and the satiric graphics of later Philip Guston, Eggleston, in State of the Union, grapples with and protests the injustices carried in on the most recent waves of conservatism–the Tea Party, Trumpism, etc. Eggelston seems to lament a unifying patriotism of the past that has been co-opted in service of voter suppression and false claims of fraudulent vote counts, book banning, and ultimately the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, while recognizing that patriotism, in whatever iteration, has never been accessible to all Americans.
State of the Union also explores the exhaustion, the emotional and physical wear and tear, that the vigilance required to fight injustice results in, as well as the outright violent dangers that accompany oppression and protest. The horse, depicted as either dead or emaciated, is being shot at or doused by paint. The flag is in tatters or is simply disappearing, dispersing like smoke or tear gas.
The horse at times evokes the idiom of beating a dead horse, as issues we keep telling ourselves have been resolved keep rearing their ugly heads generation after generation. At times, it evokes the donkey of the Democratic party, either deflated after a loss to Trump, exhausted in the face of Republican propaganda and lies, or inept and impotent, unable to produce the solutions its stated ideals promise. Or all of the above.
The flag is reminiscent of the flags of Jasper Johns, but in the context of the January 6 insurrection, they also evoke his target series–flag as target. Is the flag a rallying symbol for the insurrectionists, even as it flies over the building they ransacked? Or is it a symbol of the democracy they attempted to overthrow?
After every State of the Union address, the president, no matter which party, inevitably closes by saying, “and the State of the Union is strong.” There are times when that rings more hollow than others, and Eggleston’s State of the Union makes clear, in no uncertain terms, that this is most definitely one of those times.
- Chris Tonelli, So&So Books
ARTIST STATEMENT
“My recent work is in response to the crisis of democracies across the globe, particularly in the United States. While insidious assaults on democratic ideals have been experienced by Black and POC communities since the inception of this country, citizens the country over found themselves in shock and disbelief over the assault on our Nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021. The subsequent attacks on voting rights, reproductive rights, and attacks on the LGBTQ+ communities have intensified in the last year. State of the Union is a body of work that depicts these ongoing threats to our civil liberties through symbolic imagery that is at once visceral and unrepressed. The mixed-media works in this show employ taboo imagery, funhouse mirrors, and flags while using mud, dirt, and gauze as some of the mediums. The symbols and materials composed are meant to be stark reminders that there cannot be democracy when there is only one dominant narrative and made under the blanket of White Privilege.”
Reading Rainbow 40 x 37” | $2000
Voting Booth I 37 x 40” | $2000
Voting Booth II 37 x 40” | $2000
White Trash 30 x 21” | $1000
White Wash 30 x 21” | $1000
America the Broken 30 x 21” | $1000
Mud Flag: In Reverse 30 x 21” | $1000
INVENTORY + PRICES
Insurrection 25.5 x 31.5” | $1200
Yellow Gas 26 x 20” | $800
I Portest 40 x 30” | $1500
For Love of Country 37 x 48” | $2000
Black Hole 30 x 40” | $2000
Black Day 23 x 29” | $1000