Brian Jungen at Casey Kaplan

Brian Jungen's work deals in part with the aesthetic possibilities of globalized culture in ways that remind one of the ubiquity of western consumer goods throughout the world. Jungen's elaborate creations re-purpose typical western consumables like sneakers, sports jerseys and leather goods into works of art that reference the artistic practices of his native British Columbian Indian ancestry. In Dragonfly, 2008 Jungen has drilled thousands of small holes into the can to create an intricate design based on beading work done by Indigenous Canadian tribes. Here Jungen is referencing the landscape of the remote reservations where these tribes live by using a common part of everyday life - the jerry can. With little gas stations in these areas, the local people must rely on the jerry can to provide fuel and therefore mobility. The irony of this necessity is that the area where these tribes live is rich with oil deposits that have failed to enrich them or even contribute to more filling stations. Jungen's choice to adorn the can with holes, thereby rendering it useless, has an element of protest that is masked by the sheer beauty and intricacy of the drill work. Like much of his other work, including the woven sports jerseys also on view, Jungen is able to bring up the complex and problematic relationships between cultures in a global society while simultaneously pronouncing the possibilities for beauty and wonder.