Richard Aldrich's pieces in the Whitney Biennial, Gift
Richard Aldrich, Untitled
Richard Aldrich, Stranger in a Strange Land
The studio and said chair.
"Usually you see old men wearing these. I’ve seen a skateboard company make similar ones but these are the original and they’re a bit fancier but they don’t last too long. They’re the only shoes I wear and as you can see, there’s more than one pair in here. I’ve probably had 12 pairs in the last 4 years."
"This is a weird little thing that my Dad made that I still keep around. It doesn’t work now, but it’s a target with a light sensor. I had a toy gun that shot light, and I would shoot at it, and when it hit the light sensor it would make this crazy noise.""I got this at a junk store in Paris but, you know, an expensive junk store. There are all those street vendors that sell photos like this on the sidewalk, but I never saw one that struck me as much as this one. I don’t know who this is - I assume it’s a French guy. I glued these two pictures onto this canvas but it didn’t really look right so I cut it out and its just been laying around. It’s weird, I went back twice to get these and both times I went in there they were playing this Mr. Oizo song."I initially glued these pieces of wood together a while back when I was in Tennessee, and I’ve kept it around since. A dog chewed on it, but I like it more a little roughed up that way. It's a bit like the piece in the Biennial, which is also a wooden sculpture."
"This is a draft of the press release from my first ever show. I like where it says, “ A brush stroke is made in thick paint, a brush stroke is made in thin paint”… “The work acts more as a working or documentation of a series of decisions that have been made” ... “A white painted nail is used, a brass nail is used”. I don’t even remember using brass nails or white painted ones, so I guess I was just writing that because I thought it sounded good!""Initially this was a taller stool, we used it as the drum seat when I was in this band in Columbus, Ohio. I learned to play drums sitting on this chair and have always kept it with me. I’ve had it for 12 years. it also ended up being in a painting as well"
"What I eat most of the time during the day - cranberries and almonds. Especially when they’re fresh, it’s ridiculous how good they are!"
"A drawing of a painting I did that's been lying on the floor here."
"This is a portrait of Richard Wright from Pink Flyod. I think this is the first time I ever did a portrait. It’s very blended… the skin tones and everything. I'd say it's pretty amateur."
"I think there are probably 3 books that really influenced my life. The first I would say is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Raynd, which is kind of funny because it’s a somewhat Republican book. The next I would say is Anti-Œdipus, which I actually read with [OC’s art director] Su Barber back when we and some other friends had a book club. Then I read this [In Search of Lost Time]. I could always say what was important to me about Atlas Shrugged or Anti-Œdipus, but I could never really pin point what came from this. Then over the past 2 years I would read bits and pieces of it with a friend, and it was only then that I realized that everything I think about is from this book! it’s like “oh wow, I thought I had all these ideas but actually they all come from Marcel Proust”! These were used in the Biennial too, it was called Gift.""This is my old bike that just got too beat up for me to ride. I was afraid that it was going to fall apart one day – so I ended up buying a new one but keeping this one around too. I haven’t been able to throw it out just yet. I used to double people up on it, and one day found this orange seatbelt in the street, though at that point I thought it had gotten too old to support two people..."
The old seat from the bike.
"Every summer I cut my winter pants into shorts - the leftover scraps of fabric are where the starting of this piece came from."
I love this album artwork from Sonny Sharrock's album, "Black Woman". My favorite thing about it is that it is he and his wife linda, who sings. I like this title of the fifth song: "Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black". "This painting is good to show you because it’s actually made of all things that I had lying around the studio that I just attached. Like, this ticket is from my favorite Robert Bresson movie, Diary of a Country Priest. Also is this piece I had painted and then cut out. it is of a leg wearing green striped tights. I think its called Diary of a Country P, that's what the ticket says."
Richard's studio.
Hoarders of their own inspiration and projects forgotten, the artist’s studio plays host to a hodgepodge of ephemera. Artist Richard Aldrich’s Brooklyn studio is certainly no exception. Stepping over half-finished works to plant my things on a chair in the center of the studio (the “only chair that I keep paint-free”, Richard says), I realized there was clearly more than enough to gawk at. Puttering around his studio in his signature Zig Zag tennis shoes and spitting his masterful sarcasm that I can only explain as being so good it’s like as if you read it off a text message and didn’t know whether it was a joke or the truth, I had to hear Rich’s own verdict on some of the found objects in his studio. Some objects are related to his current works in the Whitney Biennial, some are just relate to him, but all paint a portrait of the super talented artist and friend of OC.
Check out his studio here, with commentary in his own words, and see his work for yourself at the Whitney Biennial!
Richard Aldrich's pieces in the Whitney Biennial, Gift
Richard Aldrich, Untitled
Richard Aldrich, Stranger in a Strange Land
The studio and said chair.
"Usually you see old men wearing these. I’ve seen a skateboard company make similar ones but these are the original and they’re a bit fancier but they don’t last too long. They’re the only shoes I wear and as you can see, there’s more than one pair in here. I’ve probably had 12 pairs in the last 4 years."
"This is a weird little thing that my Dad made that I still keep around. It doesn’t work now, but it’s a target with a light sensor. I had a toy gun that shot light, and I would shoot at it, and when it hit the light sensor it would make this crazy noise."
"I got this at a junk store in Paris but, you know, an expensive junk store. There are all those street vendors that sell photos like this on the sidewalk, but I never saw one that struck me as much as this one. I don’t know who this is - I assume it’s a French guy. I glued these two pictures onto this canvas but it didn’t really look right so I cut it out and its just been laying around. It’s weird, I went back twice to get these and both times I went in there they were playing this Mr. Oizo song."
I initially glued these pieces of wood together a while back when I was in Tennessee, and I’ve kept it around since. A dog chewed on it, but I like it more a little roughed up that way. It's a bit like the piece in the Biennial, which is also a wooden sculpture."
"This is a draft of the press release from my first ever show. I like where it says, “ A brush stroke is made in thick paint, a brush stroke is made in thin paint”… “The work acts more as a working or documentation of a series of decisions that have been made” ... “A white painted nail is used, a brass nail is used”. I don’t even remember using brass nails or white painted ones, so I guess I was just writing that because I thought it sounded good!"
"Initially this was a taller stool, we used it as the drum seat when I was in this band in Columbus, Ohio. I learned to play drums sitting on this chair and have always kept it with me. I’ve had it for 12 years. it also ended up being in a painting as well"
"What I eat most of the time during the day - cranberries and almonds. Especially when they’re fresh, it’s ridiculous how good they are!"
"A drawing of a painting I did that's been lying on the floor here."
"This is a portrait of Richard Wright from Pink Flyod. I think this is the first time I ever did a portrait. It’s very blended… the skin tones and everything. I'd say it's pretty amateur."
"I think there are probably 3 books that really influenced my life. The first I would say is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Raynd, which is kind of funny because it’s a somewhat Republican book. The next I would say is Anti-Œdipus, which I actually read with [OC’s art director] Su Barber back when we and some other friends had a book club. Then I read this [In Search of Lost Time]. I could always say what was important to me about Atlas Shrugged or Anti-Œdipus, but I could never really pin point what came from this. Then over the past 2 years I would read bits and pieces of it with a friend, and it was only then that I realized that everything I think about is from this book! it’s like “oh wow, I thought I had all these ideas but actually they all come from Marcel Proust”! These were used in the Biennial too, it was called Gift."
"This is my old bike that just got too beat up for me to ride. I was afraid that it was going to fall apart one day – so I ended up buying a new one but keeping this one around too. I haven’t been able to throw it out just yet. I used to double people up on it, and one day found this orange seatbelt in the street, though at that point I thought it had gotten too old to support two people..."
The old seat from the bike.
"Every summer I cut my winter pants into shorts - the leftover scraps of fabric are where the starting of this piece came from."
I love this album artwork from Sonny Sharrock's album, "Black Woman". My favorite thing about it is that it is he and his wife linda, who sings. I like this title of the fifth song: "Portrait of Linda in Three Colors, All Black".
"This painting is good to show you because it’s actually made of all things that I had lying around the studio that I just attached. Like, this ticket is from my favorite Robert Bresson movie, Diary of a Country Priest. Also is this piece I had painted and then cut out. it is of a leg wearing green striped tights. I think its called Diary of a Country P, that's what the ticket says."
Richard's studio.
