Ronald Cornelissen

 

Natural Law by Princess Dragonmom
Video – color – 6 min 41 sec – 2003

In Ronald Cornelissen, Davin Brainard and Warn Defever’s video Natural Law we see a man dressed as a tree fight a man dressed as a bush on the sidewalk of an anonymous Detroit street. No reason for their altercation is given, and as we watch them clash in their cardboard costumes (reminiscent of props produced for a school play, or foliage from a cartoon landscape) we wonder what has motivated these usually peaceable vegetable life-forms to violence. One answer might be provided by the title of the piece, which evokes the philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ First Law of Nature: ‘That every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has a hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all helps and advantages of war’. As for man, so, it seems, for plants. The result is a work in which political economy winds around dumb pop thrills and laughter and horror uneasily commingle.

Text by Tom Morton for the Busan Biennale catalogue.

Photo’s/foto’s: Seung-Hyun
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CONSIDERING DETROIT – Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) – 2008
With Ellen Cantor, Maurice Greenia Jr. (Maugre), Jim Gustafson, Allie McGhee, Heather McGill, Gordon Newton and Time Stereo’s “UFO Factory”

TIME STEREO/UFO FACTORY ARTIST STATEMENT:

UFO Factory is the third in a projected series of architectural models which feature a highly theatrical element. UFO Factory in MOCAD is produced from a small five inch tall cardboard replica of the original UFO Factory, a brick and mortar art-space located in an undisclosed industrial area of Eastern Market, New Detroit, less than a mile away from MOCAD.

“The underlying organizational rationale is that we are re-constructing a full-size (800 sq ft.) art gallery / performance space / nightclub entirely out of cardboard. We work not from memory, photographs, or detailed diagrams, instead we follow the example of a tiny cardboard model which lacks all but the most basic details or fixtures. We believe community is an important issue in our work. Our use of “common” materials, spray paint, cardboard, and glue, is not only a textural component that is easily recognized and afforded by all artists working in a economically depressed area but also may be seen as a rejection of so-called “high” art tradition”.

As UFO Factory continues to evolve in its three months of interactive events, audiences seeking to lose themselves in real and fake art exhibits, ufology, abnormal animal and human curiosities, flippancy, insane melodrama, man transformed into wolf, sophisticated novelties, life, action, abduction, magic, movies, and suprise can respond emotionally, individually and collectively, to the curious wedding of realism, romance, innocence, and silver spectacle.

ROBOT HEART with Davin Brainard, Warn Defever, Dion Fisher, Aliccia Berg, Mike Kearns and Ronald Cornelissen

Photo’s/foto’s: Sarah Lapinski (3,4 & 6) and Corine Vermeulen (1,5 & 7)
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Galerie Jade
With: Johanna Billing, Davin Brainard, Miguel Calderon, Warn Defever, Doug Fishbone, Annika Strom, Erik van Lieshout, Keith Wilson and Ronald Cornelissen – Curated by Tom Morton – Gallery Diana Stigter, Amsterdam – 2008
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