Mabry’s sculptures evoke a poignant humor and notions of high- and low-brow aesthetics, merging the two in a jocular yet analytical way. In these works, Mabry appropriates the figures of Auguste Rodin’s "The Burghers of Calais," but in this case they are adorned with familiar American sports mascot heads. Mabry carefully chooses mascots with facial expressions that directly reflect the body language of the Burghers and fuses the somber feeling of the original into a cohesive contemporary union. In his own words, Mabry "crashes" multiple aesthetics together, building and expanding upon recontextualized contemporary metaphors.
Presented as part of the 2014 deFINE ART program, Feb. 18-21, 2014.
