Joseph Castle

Things We Carry

 

March 13 – April 25, 2017
Reception: Tuesday March 21st, 5:00PM – 7:00PM

Gallery walkthrough with artist begins at 4PM

 Joseph Castle Poster

Hyde Art Gallery is pleased to present the work of bronze sculptor Joseph Castle. Things We Carry consists of 15 monumental bronze wall reliefs, conceptualized and fabricated by Castle, that function as modular sacred spaces. Although solidly static and extremely heavy, Castle’s sculptures have an undeniable feeling of movement. By incorporating and arranging found animal remnants into the bronze casting process, the artist is able to create haunting scenes of floating biomorphic shapes, like mastodons emerging partially intact from the La Brea Tar Pits.

 

The sculptures included in Things We Carry invoke different archetypical narratives, addressing the sometimes-subconscious symbols found throughout mythology and religion to explore themes of life, death, and transcendence. The show title Things We Carry is a veiled reference to the concept of subjective truth in effective storytelling found in Tim O’Brien’s wartime novel The Things They Carried, but also more directly speaks to the different physical forms and belief systems we all carry around with us, lending shape to our external façades and guiding us at times towards conflicting notions about where we come from and what is in front of us.

 

“The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.” – Tim O’Brien


Things We Carry will run from March 13th until April 25th 2017 at Grossmont College’s Hyde Art Gallery. The Hyde Art Gallery will host an exhibition reception on Tuesday, March 21st from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. There will be a live music and delicious refreshments will be served. Admission is always free and the public is encouraged to attend.

 

The Summit Article

East County Californian Article

 

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