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Elizabeth Warren’s Ear is comprised of new small-scale and site-specific sculptural works that treat the gallery as a mock museological site, articulated both through the installation and in the specific collection of discrete works. References abound and range from the art historical to the archeological, summoning spaces such as modern art museums but also natural history museums and halls of antiquities. Variously deadpan and full of wit, the works summon an array of sources that include religious iconography, items of domestic life, and anthropological artifacts. Some take the form of fragments or relics, while others make direct reference to iconic works of the 20th century by the likes of Constantin Brancusi and Jasper Johns. The materials and subjects of these works are mined from the public lexicon of the everyday. Ibuprofen gel caps, cockroaches, and trompe l’oeil fragments of a linoleum floor are made into objects of reverence, while a carved marble relief captures, in close up, a video still pulled from the internet of two women having sex.

The cockroach as material and emblem recurs throughout the exhibition. It takes shape in the form of carved wood sculptures resembling any number of religious or sacred icons, suggesting that the species serves as subject of worship and reverence. The cockroach also appears as canvas, primed and painted to resemble Porky Pig or in a bright, neon tie-dye pattern. If these works make sly reference to Jasper Johns's targets and the high key colors of Pop art, Kinnaird’s Endless Ache and The Kiss (both 2022) are more explicit in their punning nods to Brancusi. In Endless Ache (which riffs on the iconic Endless Column series) Kinnaird replaces Brancusi’s metal or wood structure with a string of Ibuprofen capsules that extend from floor to ceiling, becoming a slow drip caught in time. The Kiss—made with two ibuprofens held together with the artist’s spit and secured with a rubber band—humorously substitutes Brancusi’s embracing stone figures with the more ubiquitous anti-inflammatory. Across all works in the exhibition, Kinnaird probes the limits of taste through a playful exploration of sex, politics, art history, and visual culture.

Iva Kinnaird (b. 1991, Dallas, TX) has shown her work throughout Texas, at The Modern, Fort Worth, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, and in numerous group and solo exhibitions in galleries in Dallas and elsewhere. I Would Love You If You Looked Like This:, a solo exhibition of her paintings of couches, was shown at Maximillian William, London, in 2020. Kinnaird received her BFA from the University of Texas, Austin, in 2014. She has lived in Houston since 2014.

Works in exhibition:

Filling, 2022
Acrylic on Masonite, plaster
12 x 11 x 1 3/4 inches (30.48 x 27.94 x 4.44 cm)

HOT LESBIAN PUSSY TO PUSSY (2GIRLSHOME) 4:11, 2022
Marble, aluminum, felt
10 1/2 x 9 7/8 x 1 1/4 inches (26.67 x 25.08 x 3.18 cm)

Tie-Dye Guy V, 2022
Acrylic on cockroach
4 x 3 x 1 inches (10.16 x 7.62 x 2.54 cm)

Endless Ache, 2022
Ibuprofen, upholstery thread
Dimensions variable, height of the room

Carved Cockroach, 2020
Poplar
22 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/4 inches (57.15 x 6.35 x .64 cm)

The Kiss, 2022
Ibuprofen, artist’s spit, rubber band
1 x 3/4 x 1/4 inches (2.54 x 1.9 x .64 cm)

IB Objects, 2022
Ibuprofen, super glue, resin
Nine objects, variable dimensions

Carved Cockroach (Scarface), 2021
Poplar
18 x 2 1/2 x 3/4 inches (45.72 x 6.35 x 1.9 cm)

That’s all Folks! (1953), 2022
Acrylic on cockroach and cardboard
4 x 4 x 3/4 inches (10.16 x 10.16 x 1.9 cm)

There’s More Folks! (Evil Porky), 2022
Acrylic on cockroach and cardboard
4 x 4 x 3/4 inches (10.16 x 10.16 x 1.9 cm)

Elizabeth Warren’s Ear, 2022
Acrylic on paper, rocks, pedestal
43 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (111.13 x 32.38 x 40 cm)

Installation photography of Iva Kinnaird Elizabeth Warren's Ear © Sean Fleming

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