Sam Lipp at Derosia – Art Viewer

Artist: Sam Lipp

Exhibition title: Leaving the Factory

Venue: Derosia, New York, US

Date: May 19 – June 25, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Derosia, New York

Leaving The Factory was the name of the first film (La Sortie de lʼUsine) (1895, Lumière) and it depicted laborers leaving work for the day. The very first superstars were those workers at the film factory. The workers were reproduced as images and the images were made at the factory.

Workers leaving the factory was the subject of the first film, and maybe every film since. All the worldʼs a soundstage, and the stars of today (you and me) are as invisible as the raw material sources that power the system.

The paintings in this show are made on steel using steel wool as a paintbrush. One work, Gaslight (2021–2022) is painted over the prismatic film that is used for reflective street signs. The film Gaslight (1943) presented an enduring visual metaphor about being dominated in a situation and made to surrender the terms of your reality.

A series of works on triangular cut steel reference a road sign for trucks exiting a factory. Street signs are directives to elicit action, and these are “Action!” paintings. The triangles are rendered in pink because that’s something you donʼt see too often on street signage.

The factory of images supplies an endless chain of identification. The factory never closes. If the world kept telling you over and over that you don’t exist, you might start to believe it

Sam Lipp (b. 1989, London) lives and works in New York. Recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include Derosia, New York (2022; 2016; 2014); Bonny Poon, Paris (2019); Central Fine, Miami (2015) and Neochrome, Turin (2015). Group exhibitions include Derosia (2021); Cell Project Space, London (2019); Michael Jackson: On the Wall, National Portrait Gallery, London; traveled to Grand Palais, Paris; Bundeskunstalle, Bonn, Germany; and Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland (2018–2019); Bonny Poon, Paris (2017); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2016).