Cipher Awakening at the Horizon of Denial

Shaun O'Dell
Printmaking
2005

University Hall, Second Floor

Dominated by a black-and-gold rectangle in the upper half of the picture plane, the form in Cipher Awakening at the Horizon of Denial seems to teeter on a skinny tapering stem, which balances precariously on a slanting light-blue ground plane. The hieroglyphic shapes within the rectangle suggest an ancient yet undecipherable language. Beneath the rectangles corner on the right float two tiny Liberty Bells, one red, and one delineated by a black line.
 
Shaun O’Dell makes drawings, videos, music, and sculptures that explore the intertwining realities of the human and natural orders. He was born in Beeville, TX and received his MFA from Stanford University in 2004. In 2004, he received a SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art. His work is held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the UC Berkeley Museum, and the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Bronx Museum of Arts, and the DESTE Foundation of Contemporary Art. He currently teaches at UC Berkeley and the California College of the Arts, and is the co-organizer of the New Masses, a lecture series on art and politics. O'Dell lives and works in San Francisco.