Process

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In the Wake of the Exodus Toward the Breach in the Gate

2018
Assemblage with ultraviolet light, glass optics, antique bronze fish, brass plate, antique cast iron, carved phenolic, 4 million year old fish fossil, colored jojoba oil and brass snake chain.
82 x 33 x 8 inches

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Described by the artist as his “…most significant artwork to date.” Indeed Brudniak spent 2 years and thousands of dollars on this labor. The piece was loosely inspired by August Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell.” The signature, carved stag beetle phenolic frame and base surround antique iron fire place frames which confine a sea of brass. Bronze, old world (200 year old antique) dolphins swim in Fibonacci currents toward a portal that seems to suppress an enigmatic and perplexingly shifty ultraviolet light source. A panel near the base contains brass snake chain in red oil, behind thick glass in a brass framework, conjuring images of metallic worms or viscera and hinting at the possibility that the shiny parasite may infest the entire cavity of the piece. Another panel below this is inlaid with a 4 million year old fossil of a disheveled fish. A two-tailed mermaid figurehead tops the piece as guardian over the brass sea and a second siren blows a trumpet, which spews a coiled metal tube that carries electricity to the artworks mechanism. There are no explanations given for the nautical and surrealistic imagery of this piece, unlike much of Brudniak’s other work.

SALVADOR CUGAT