Joe Yorty and Joe Cantrell: 'I Ate And Ate And Nothing Happened'

From the gallery:
"I ate and ate and nothing happened" is the product of conversations about converging and diverging practices, showcasing the past year of Yorty and Cantrell’s interdisciplinary collaboration parallel to their individual work. Their reflections on the complex nature of manufactured objects reveal a narrative of deceit assumed in the buying and selling of things that speaks to something unavoidably vulnerable and human. Ultimately, the work in this exhibition aims to produce a mix of reactions that shouldn’t work well together, but do.

Some of their collaborations refer to Yorty’s expansive collection of small mirror shelf objects as a ground for the creation of wall-hung sculptural assemblages that include found objects and hacked electronics. Cantrell programs the electronic portions of the works to create movement and sound that are simultaneously comical and unsettling. The larger of the collaborative works is a sculptural sound installation that brings together Yorty’s stockpile of imitation stone garden speakers and Cantrell’s collection of found answering machine tapes. This collaboration comments on the tensions between ephemerality/permanence and nature/technology while touching on themes of overconsumption, the absurd, and simulation. Also included are a video piece from Yorty that uses super 8 footage displayed across three different tv sets stacked on top of one another and Fan Club - an installation from Cantrell that creates soundscapes at odds with their physical nature as discarded, low-quality junk.

About the artists:
Joe Yorty is an artist who employs a range of materials, objects, and methods to make work that largely addresses the anxieties and absurdities of American domestic culture. Including sculpture, collage, video, and photography his studio practice grapples with the stuff of thrift store refuse, last-minute estate sale deals, and the occasional dumpster dive to rub against the pathos of the ceaseless search for fulfillment in the accumulation of things that, to a large extent, defines the American experience in the 21st century. His work has been shown on both coasts of the United States and some places in between. Yorty was born in southwest Utah, raised in Southern California, served 11 years in the U.S. Navy, and received an MFA in Visual Art at UCSD in 2013. He currently lives and works in San Diego where he serves as the founding Creative Director for the not-for-profit gallery and project space BEST PRACTICE.

Joe Cantrell is a sound artist and musician specializing in installations, compositions and performances inspired by the implications and consequences of technological and mass-produced objects. His work deals with four things: media, technology, money, and trash. In other words, the shiny new tech we consume can also be viewed as future garbage. With this mind, he uses technology as a raw material that allows our relationship with obsolescence and decay to be felt. As a sound artist, Cantrell has performed and installed in numerous venues globally, as well as artist residencies in New York, London, Rotterdam, Beijing and the Bemis Center for Contemporary art in Omaha. His work has also been honored with grants from the Creative Capital Foundation and New Music USA among others. Cantrell hold a BFA in music technology from the California Institute of the Arts, an MFA in digital arts and new media from UC Santa Cruz, and a PhD in music from UC San Diego. Cantrell was born and raised in Los Angeles and is currently based in San Diego (though he still has a 213 phone number).

Related links:
Bread and Salt on Instagram
Bread and Salt website