Elliott Hundley
b. 1975, Greensboro, North Carolina
Lives in Los Angeles
venue
Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University
Woldenberg Art Center #202, Newcomb Circle, New Orleans, LA 70118
Monday, closed
Tuesday–Friday, 10 AM–5 PM
Saturday–Sunday, 10 AM–4 PM
neighborhood
About the project
The Balcony, 2020–21
Encaustic, paper, plastic, pins, photographs, foam, and linen on panel
Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and Kasmin, New York
Elliott Hundley’s work takes its title from a 1956 play of the same name, The Balcony, by Jean Genet. In Genet’s text, which is set in a brothel, men have come to play out sexual fantasies of social power, assuming archetypal characters, such as the Judge and the General. As the power structures in the outside world around them are overthrown, they attempt to assume their positions in the public sphere—an upside down universe of fantasy rendered real. Hundley’s work takes Genet’s play as a jumping-off point for questions of position and masquerade as they relate both to our recent national history and to New Orleans itself. What unfolds in this immersive mural is an intricate collage composed of hundreds of found images and original photographs that present a mass of people moving across its facade. A procession, a protest, a revolution—all of these gatherings are conjured in the space of this work. The suggestion of resistance, violence, pleasure, hysteria, and collective will are captured in the energy of these images and in the richly detailed surface the artist has created. Narrative scenes play out in the spaces demarcated by yellow encaustic, a kind of wax paint, while the larger world unfolds chaotically beyond, just as in the original play. In Hundley’s work, the space of the balcony—an iconic architectural feature in New Orleans—is both a narrative relayed in pictures, as well as a scene we might step into ourselves.
About The Artist
Literally and figuratively dense and deep, Elliott Hundley’s work mostly features elaborate, large-scale collages, which combine hundreds of intricate pieces, including photographs, print media, texts, beads, shells, and other found objects. His immersive works reflect narratives drawn from classical texts, ancient mythology, theater, and poetry while spanning vast periods of time, winding their way to the present day, where they often reference his southern heritage, family history, and contemporary social circle. He layers painting, sculpture, and found objects to create contained yet epic imaginary universes that recall the theatricality of the classical works that inspire him. Hundley’s work has been exhibited at numerous galleries in Los Angeles and New York, museums around the world, and is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Hundley earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence (1997), an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles (2005), and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.
Elliott Hundley, The Balcony, 2020–21. Encaustic, paper, plastic, pins, photographs, foam, and linen on panel, 8 x 40 feet. Installation view: Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, 2021–22. Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, New Orleans. Courtesy Prospect New Orleans. Photo: Alex Marks