{"id":91986,"date":"2025-04-07T08:05:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T15:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=91986"},"modified":"2025-04-17T06:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:26:52","slug":"sisyphean-scenes-david-brothers-art-of-repetition-and-ruin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/sisyphean-scenes-david-brothers-art-of-repetition-and-ruin\/","title":{"rendered":"Sisyphean Scenes: David Brothers\u2019 Art of Repetition and Ruin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Brothers’ new installation, Jollies, is at 916 S. Jefferson St. through April 31.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The history of art doesn\u2019t record how many of those it documents have identified with Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra whose pride and cleverness, especially in regards to cheating death, caused Zeus to condemn him to an eternity of struggling to roll a giant boulder uphill, only to have it roll back down when nearly to the top, so forcing him to repeat the futile task forever. In this, Salt Lake multimedia artist David Brothers may be unique, for he describes his work in just such terms: as \u201cSisyphean … building, crushing, and rebuilding.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Perplexing as that may be, Brothers doesn\u2019t stop there, but takes a step further. Surely most artists, regardless of medium, would argue that their work deals on some level with Truth, even in the face of Plato\u2019s verdict that copies of the natural world are necessarily ever-less accurate attempts to duplicate the divine, ideal originals of all things. In\u00a0<\/span>other words, movement in entirely the wrong direction. Yet Brothers adds a crucial qualifier, a confession even, to his formula. His building, crushing, and rebuilding is, to use his word, \u201cinauthentic.\u201d<\/h4>\n

To be sure, \u201cinauthentic\u201d in Brothers\u2019 description doesn\u2019t mean dishonest. While many attempts to reproduce the real world strive to make it at least look better than it is, Brothers displays a determination to capture its grittier qualities. To that end, he uses a lot of discarded and found materials.<\/h4>\n

Any good installation interacts with its environment, usually an interior space. Brothers prefers the larger possibilities he finds outdoors, as he did in his most recent work at the county landfill, a \u201crebuilding\u201d adroitly described<\/a> by 15 Bytes founding editor Shawn Rossiter.<\/h4>\n

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View from within the installation.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In fact, Jollies<\/i> collaborates with an entire Salt Lake City district, the Central 9th neighborhood formed when the offramp from I-15 to West Temple Street cut through a pre-existing location of homes, parks, and small businesses, creating dead-end streets and distressing the entire quarter. To their credit, the authorities have made extensive efforts to reinvigorate the damaged area, upgrading the streets to encourage foot traffic on wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks and street-centered parking that connects with the 9th South Trax station. Yet while old businesses are recovering and shiny new ones have risen from the ashes, evidence of the past remains in the form of shuttered buildings and incompletely renovated housing. Brothers\u2019 installation, with its reclaimed materials and mixture of historical references and temporary fabrication, perfectly suits this feeling of a work-in-progress.<\/h4>\n

Jollies<\/i> also fits perfectly in an alley between two handsome eateries that encourage alfresco dining on outdoor tables set apart from the sidewalk. Basically six large, hanging panels of recovered and repainted canvas, the installation features mock-architectural facades in front and back that enclose six expansive, painted scenes\u2014three on each side\u2014and three stepped, wooden platforms that create islands from which the six artworks can be comfortably viewed and better seen.<\/h4>\n