Rest On The Gum Hoods

Image: Rest On The Gum Hoods, 2022, laser etched acrylic, spray paint. Mounted on a baltic birch panel, 48” x 72”.

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Please note that the following exhibition text contains sensitive words.

An X-ray of a memory only the bones remember. ‘X’ marks the spot where the ghost bicycle occupies the place of a tragic happening. Painted white and unrideable, it is a vanitas for a daydream nation of drivers distracted by sound, youth, beauty, aging, death, and entropy. Put the seat down, put the hoods down, both need to touch the ground. It may slow fate a little, but it also tempts it to the same measure.

Just because they’re called suicide levers doesn’t mean it’s suicide. It’s simply another way to ask the ride to go faster without raising one’s hand. But the kind of light we have here is a spectre of radiation. Light that illuminates with a half-life faith that it’ll decay however long forever lasts. At the end it’s ok if you can’t remember, there’s an X on the wound of forgetting too.

Image: Feature Wall: David Trautrimas, Rest On The Gum Hoods, 2022.

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David Trautrimas explores contemporary cultural phenomena in a multi-media practice that has encompassed sculpture, installation, photography, and printmaking. Oscillating between abstracted and representational renderings, his works have examined those popular icons, ordinary objects and architectural spaces that influence and inform everyday life.

Trautrimas’ work has been the subject of numerous public exhibitions in Canada and internationally in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Recent solo exhibitions include A Recollection of Spoils, Paul Elia Gallery, Hamilton (2021) A Place Between The Water In The Water, Angell Gallery, Toronto (2019); The Lake Dives Where the Earth Curves, Assembly Gallery, Hamilton (2019); In The Wake of The Bind, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto (2016); and Eidolon Point, The Canadian Embassy’s Prince Takamodo Gallery, Tokyo (2015). Notable group exhibitions include his presentations in Ontario at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2018); The Gardiner Museum (2017); Art Gallery of Windsor (2017); The Harbourfront Centre (2013); The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (2010) and abroad at The Korean Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea (2011) and Queensland Center for Photography in Brisbane, Australia (2010). David Trautrimas was born and raised in Belleville, Ontario. He currently lives and works in Hamilton.