Whether it’s a large-scale wallpaper reproduction of Sandro Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” or pages of deconstructed Artforum magazines, David Daigle’s detailed punch-cut compositions delve into the material and conceptual possibilities of layers, depth, and what is revealed or concealed.
Daigle’s forthcoming exhibition, The Death of Beauty at Track 16, investigates intersections of identity, consumer culture, and desire through a kind of sedimentary approach to commercial imagery, which he excavates with precise holes each revealing tiny tableaux. This method of décollage, which involves building up the surface and then removing elements, literally peels away the meanings and intentions behind contemporary visual culture.
“The Birth of Venus” serves as the foundational composition for Daigle’s “The Death of Venus,” which has been completely overwhelmed by the artist’s hole-punched interventions. Tiny vignettes of people, things, and colorful dots completely erase and replace the titular figure. The masterpiece of 15th-century art has been reduced to an inexpensive, mass-market object for home decor and is further disarticulated by a sea of anonymous eyes and mouths. What could be more symbolic of our era of ultra consumerism?
Daigle digs into a wide array of photographs and printed media, from bus shelter advertisements to a panoramic photograph of Gaza taken around 2020, in which almost all of the buildings have been subsumed under the cratered surface. It’s symbolic of the real devastation the city has experienced since the war began in late 2023. In a broader sense, the artist’s works reveal something akin to a visualization of the media’s often obscured undercurrent.
“I am interested in sublimating technical images designed to generate desire,” the artist says. “Through the subversive act of perforation, I search for the meanings trapped behind them. I want to see past the imagery, through the photograph itself, and ask whether media can become so untruthful that it ultimately consumes both itself and us.”
The Death of Beauty opens on July 18 and continues through September 5 in East Hollywood. In the meantime, explore more on the artist’s Instagram.
