 |
Rick Finkelstein:
Without Wings
New Drawings & Animation
November 10 – November 27, 2004
Artist’s Reception: Wednesday, November 10, 6 – 8 pm
DFN Gallery is pleased to present Rick
Finkelstein’s exhibition of large-scale charcoal and pastel drawings,
and his animated short film, “Without Wings.” This film explores the
relationship between the artist’s need to create, the process of
creation, and the need to revisit past traumatic experiences. Once a
drawing is completed, it is photographed and then reworked, with no
trace of the original drawing except the filmed record. These drawings
are Finkelstein’s tangible representations of what Freud called “the
repetition compulsion” - the continuous process of working and reworking
traumatic material. The film’s animation consists of single drawings
sequentially drawn and erased, and includes childlike cutouts moving
against a static backdrop. Each drawing represents a distilled moment
in the animated story, and together they allow the dream-like narrative
to evolve.
In the title drawing, “Without Wings,” a lone
figure on a bridge jumps, and then falls, perhaps believing that he is
flying. In Collister Street,” an abandoned building looms at the end of
a desolate alley. In “Train,” a crowd of people mill around a railroad
station as relatives, friends, and neighbors are removed from an unnamed
European city. Other drawings include an artist overseeing the creation
of his film; a man awakened by a telephone caller bearing bad news; and
a mob gathering enthusiastically to witness another person’s trauma.
Rick Finkelstein has been drawing and painting for
several years following a career as a public interest and criminal trial
lawyer and as an Assistant Professor at New York University Law School.
His work has been exhibited at DFN Gallery and at Parsons School of
Design in Manhattan, Parkers Box in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and at the
Inquiring Mind Gallery in Saugerties, New York.
|
 |


|