Description: Strange Bedfellows is an exhibition of paintings by artist Kenrick Mcfarlane, featuring acoustical vibrations by deejay Michael McClean. Together these disparate mediums are shaped to cultivate a heightened sensory experience, predicated on synchronicity within the mundane. Mcfarlane and McClean received their BFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015.
ARTIST STATEMENTS
Kenrick Mcfarlane
I define painting not as a practice but rather a religion that brings me closer to god. During the time in which I’m painting I try to focus all of my energy into the present moment. What I ultimately value is truth and beauty. My purpose of creating is to explore rather than to explain. Mystery is an essential part of my work since I appreciate moments when my work takes me into unknown spaces or gives me unfamiliar experiences. My intention is to create something that has a similar intensity of life itself. I know my work is successful when I can hear and feel it breathing.
Michael McClean
My music deals with the potential meaning behind the synchronicity of events that we often ignore or would consider a random occurrence or coincidence. I begin by examining and recalling a particular experience where seemingly two separate instances or forces, either physical or emotional, begin to relate to one another and then translate my response into sound. I compose events in time using vocal and percussion samples along with synthesizers to create meaning by relating to one another within the sonic environment. Time, memory, and desire are all at play and the work eventually becomes a metaphorical extension of my lived experience. Through this process I seek a newfound awareness and a more unified and simplistic understanding of how desire can shape and affect the events in our personal lives.
.