White Man's Bugaboo

Light Breath Exercises (Two views), Bernardi Roig

A death mask with a burnt mouth. A peg-legged fat man trying to crush the noise in his head. Sound like fun? Bernardi Roig's show, "Smokebreath (The Monologue)" at Claire Oliver gallery, is a marvel despite its macabre imagery. Roig uses a host of media/techniques -- sculpture, drawings, and video -- to get his vision across, and he uses them all exceptionally well. Isolation, loneliness, and angst. It's all there in the artwork. The above sculpture, "Light Breath Exercises," was my favorite. I also liked a solarized-looking video of two men having a soundless shouting match. (Images via Claire Oliver.)


Listening Exercises I, Bernardi Roig