<3 <3 <3

SPACE is pleased to present <3 <3 <3, an installation in the window gallery by Brendan Shea.

There is something heartwarming about sporadic lines from a marker, scrawled across a white paper with no clear intent or logic. It is easily recognizable as scribble because the path of the line holds the motion of an arm hinging back and forth at the elbow. The type of erratic mark you can’t make if you are overthinking, it is a way of drawing that a child excels at.

As a child, everything can be anything. We were in better shape to understand the performativity of things. If a child is playing pretend and then declared a cardboard box to be a castle, it is spoken into existence and becomes a castle. This is a stage in our lives where we have yet to assimilate into methods taught in traditional educational structures that place an emphasis on naming and memorization. With less exposure to this social regimentation, we had more of an aptitude for understanding the malleability of the people and things around us.

Brendan Shea’s work takes form through painting and installation. Shea explores themes of familiarity, queerness, materiality, and rhetoric.

Follow Brendan on Instagram: @brendan_r_shea