Matthew Chambers – FEAR OF A BLACK HAT

January 18 - February 23, 2008

2nd Cannons Publications is very proud to present its inaugural exhibition: Matthew Chambers’s Fear of a Black Hat, an exhibition in response to Chambers’ recent shows in Vancouver (Blanket Gallery) and New York (Broadway 1602) which focused on the disappearance and implied death of Chambers' alter ego TRUDI (fitting since the show is being presented in the TRUDI gallery's former Chinatown space).

While TRUDI was loosely based around the ideals of the English anarchist punk band Crass and its creator Penny Rimbaud (B. 1943), Black Hat looks at the other side of the coin, retracing the steps of Rimbaud’s cultural nemesis, Malcolm McLaren (B. 1946). Fear of a Black Hat starts with the modification of 2nd Cannons founder Brian Kennon’s recent work “Long Live Rock n Roll,” altering it into “Let It Rock”, the name of Malcolm McLaren's first shop with Vivienne Westwood, where they outfitted dandies and Teddies in outdated/updated formal wear. From there the exhibition builds a historic web that includes Groucho Marx and Julie Christie.

The exhibition considers Kennon’s use of appropriation and fandom but through Chambers’ own trickled down etymology, defined reflexivity, and cultural footnotes to resemble a history of surrogate possession and art making. (wassup now JLG?)

Born in 1982, Matthew Chambers received his BFA from University of Miami and is an MFA dropout from ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena. Recent exhibitions include Angstrom (Los Angeles and Dallas), Broadway 1602 (New York), Blanket (Vancover), Honor Fraser (Los Angeles), and Nieves 'Zine Library (Tokyo). Chambers is also the founder of the TRUDI gallery, which ran from April 2006 - January 2008