As usual, Bunny Gunner is on the frontlines in the battle
to keep the public aware of (and often fall in love with)
new and exceptional artists—and they’ve hit
the clay pigeon once again with their current show, Fill
Box, a premier exhibit by assemblage artist Ryan Chorbagian.
Focusing on the discarded items from what could have been
any Depression-era year, Chorbagian’s love of the
antiquated and of the flashes in time he can create by
using it is captured in modestly-sized wooden and tin
boxes filled with rusted pulleys, safety pins, clock gears,
coils, batteries and pressure valves—often with
a saint of some kind inside keeping house. The boxes are
sometimes electrified with a single, glowing orange bulb
and a pope, as in Fishhook, or by a half-dozen deeper
blue bulbs with filaments webbing out their interiors
as in Flashbulb. In others boxes, saints and sepia-toned
photos are joined by a set of dentures, and on his handmade,
fabulously stylish chest Grievous Angel, there is just
a single, lonely tooth. The pieces appear to be named
more for their encasements than their contents, and this
allows the viewer to lay his or her own story over the
contents. Chorbagian is steering that story, however,
and each box is connected to the others by his obvious
enticement with the human imprint we all leave behind.
No longer discarded fodder on the long trail of human
refuse, these items now tell a complete story—and
it’s the story of us all. (Stacy Davies)
Fill Box at Bunny Gunner, 266 W. Second St., Pomona,
(909) 868-2808; www.bunnygunner.com. Open Tues.–Sat.,
10AM–7PM. Thru May 2. Free.
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