Exhibition: MY ZONE

Brandon Ndife MY ZONE March 20 - July 18 2020

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there are two sculptures, one hanging on the wall and one in front of it on the floor. Both are brown/black and covered in dirt and debris. The wall sculpture appears like a plant and a sconce. The floor sculpture looks like a piece of furniture.
 

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I don’t like my brother but I love him. Do you know what I mean?

My workshop is in our basement. The game doesn’t really allow you to experience it thank god because it’s MY ZONE and no one else’s, this is where I go to dissociate, which is why the interior is spare (surprising for a furniture shop? Maybe.) Papyrus has a “cool tool shed” with no tools inside.

My work zone is fastidious. Though when it comes to the rest of our shared house, I’m a fucking mess. I don’t get it. If I were inherently messy that would be one thing––then I’d be messy everywhere––but if I’m selectively capable of cleanliness….

I try so hard to keep the house clean, I feel like I’m always cleaning it, but then an NPC drops in to borrow the contents of one of my drawers and one of my literal socks is in the living room covered in sticky notes from Papyrus (my brother) saying CLEAN UP THIS FRICKING SOCK! And I’m like, ha ha…. : /

If I could find the part of myself that wanted and felt deserving of this shame I would rip it out.

I’m bundling preserved wood in saran wrap for a client, drinking ketchup and chilling, when Papyrus comes in and asks if I want spaghetti. His whole thing is that he’s never eaten spaghetti before but makes it obsessively because spaghetti is a food that people like. He’s a people pleaser, he can’t help it. To his shame. That’s not true. He is incapable of shame. It’s kind of amazing honestly. Though also unfathomable. The life of an alien. My brother the anatomically inaccurate skeleton with nonetheless expressive eyebrows, wearing boots, a backwards baseball cap, a cape, in love with his capacity to make offerings to the world. Which is why all our furniture doubles as a food production resource. He believes in others just as much as he believes in himself. I am adding, like, this giant wart to the inside of this cabinet. I’m never in the right relation to my own unhappiness and you can tell that, I think, from the plastic white tray thing-y that is being gummed by the ossified goop inside.

Because we are brothers I am his opposite: grumpy and a massive bitch, not feeling it though sometimes I want to, though I would defend the right to not feel it sometimes. That’s why I (I’m also a skeleton) dress the way I do: unzipped blue hoodie, socks, paunch, bedroom slippers, t-shirt.

The voice of the cabinet itself breaks suddenly through the basement’s sonic realm. Audio waves of the cabinet’s voice. Vibrating.

HELLO, I AM THE CABINET.

We wait for our cabinets to speak, and––this is what they tell us? Well, what else did you want them to say?

The cabinet––which does, in fact, have further thoughts––decides that like, honestly? I’d rather not share

Anything

Of

Myself

With you

At all. –Charlie Markbreiter

Bureau is thrilled to present MY ZONE, Brandon Ndife’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. MY ZONE features a suite of floor and wall-based sculptures composed from built furniture units overrun with abundant decay. Drawers and cabinets reveal cast vegetal forms and decomposed dioramic landscapes. The artist conjures environments where the familiar has become host to a new life or may be in the process of a terrific metamorphosis. Ndife’s work aptly offers an unsettlingly beautiful of vision of post-disaster regrowth.

Brandon Ndife (b. 1991 Hammond, IN) lives and works in Jersey City, NJ. He received a BFA from The Cooper Union and an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: Minor twin worlds with Diane Severin Nguyen, Bureau, New York; Ties That Bind, Shoot the Lobster, New York; Just Passin’ Thru, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn; Meanderthal, Species, Atlanta. Recent group exhibitions include Fixing the “not... but”, LC Queisser, Tbilisi; Backgrounds, Carl Louie, Toronto; Dinner that night, Bureau, New York.

Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on a gallery wall is a brown/black plant like growth covered in dirt and debris. There are cavities created by corn husks that hold some other objects, all clinging to a few stick branches. There is a blue plastic bag inside one of the husks.

Sconce, 2020, Corn husk, resin, AquaResin, earth pigment, enamel, wood, aluminum, 17 × 17 × 20 in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there are two sculptures, one hanging on the wall and one in front of it on the floor. Both are brown/black and covered in dirt and debris. The wall sculpture appears like a plant and a sconce. The floor sculpture looks like a piece of furniture. You can see down the hallway that there are additional sculptures hanging on the walls.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Freestanding in a gallery is what appears to be a piece of furniture, like a shelf or TV console, painted black, with dirt and debris spilling from open cavities. There appears to be dirt covered plates in stacked on the bottom shelf.

Hygge, 2020, Plywood, cast foam, earth pigment, AquaResin, resin, enamel, ceramic plates, 38 ½ × 25 × 21 in.

Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on a gallery wall is what appears to be a piece of furniture, like a filing cabinet drawer, painted black with dirt, debris and contained growth on the inside of it. What looks to be gourds are "growing" inside of the drawer and painted like decaying flesh. There are some twigs and plant roots as well.

Shelf Life Variable #2, 2020, MDF, cast foam, corn husk, resin, enamel, Elm root, 15 ½ × 20 × 13 in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there are two sculptures sitting on the floor appearing like pieces of furniture or cabinetry. Hanging on the wall are three other sculptures each appearing like a sconce, a piece of floor, and a kitchen cabinet.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on a gallery wall is a brown/black plant like growth covered in dirt and debris. There are cavities created by corn husks that hold some other objects, all clinging to a few sticks and branches.

Öffnung, 2020, Corn husk, resin, AquaResin, earth pigment, enamel, wood, aluminum, 28 ½ × 15 × 15 ½ in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there are two sculptures sitting on the floor appearing like pieces of furniture or cabinetry. Hanging on the wall are three other sculptures each appearing like a red door, a piece of floor, and a kitchen cabinet.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on the wall of a gallery is what appears to be a door with a wooden plank going across the front, all painted deep red. The door is covered with dirt and has marking on it similar to graffiti. There is a door's peephole installed in the piece and gourd like objects grow on the surface.

Door to Cupboard, 2020, AquaResin, cast foam, earth pigment, enamel, door viewer, 63 × 26 × 6 in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there is sculpture sitting on the floor appearing like pieces of furniture or cabinetry, stained brown. Hanging on the wall is another sculpture that appears to look like a dirty red door.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Freestanding in a gallery is what appears to be a piece of furniture, like a shelf or TV console, stained brown with an orange painted interior, with dirt, debris and contained growth on the inside of the furniture. What looks to be gourds are "growing" on a central trunk inside of the artwork.

Modern Dilemma, 2020, Birch, cast foam, earth pigment, AquaResin, resin, enamel, conduit cable, dish rack, ceramic plates, 48 × 27 ½ × 21 ½ in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there is a sculpture sitting on the floor appearing like a piece of furniture or cabinetry with growths inside of it. Hanging on the wall are two other sculptures each appearing like a piece of floor and a kitchen cabinet.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on a gallery wall is what appears to be a piece of furniture, like a kitchen cabinet, painted brown with dirt, debris and contained growth on the inside of the furniture. What looks to be gourds are "growing" on a central trunk inside of the artwork, painted white like mold. There is a small figurine of a black Jesus in the cabinet.

Prayer Breakfast, 2020, Melamine, cast foam, resin, enamel, sea moss, porcelain, 30 × 10 × 19 in.

Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Hanging on the wall of a gallery is what appears to be a panel with wooden planks (like a wooden floor was excavated and hung upright on the wall). The wood planks are very dirty with graffiti marks on them and round gourd like object growing on the surface.

Blossoming in Taupe, 2020, AquaResin, enamel, oil paint, earth pigment, cast foam, 39 × 25 × 7 ½ in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there is a sculpture sitting on the floor appearing like a green piece of furniture or cabinetry meant for a corner. Hanging on the wall are two other sculptures each appearing like a sconce and a dirty red door.
Image of a sculpture by Brandon Ndife. Freestanding in a gallery is what appears to be a piece of furniture, like a shelf or TV console intended to fit in a corner, painted green with dirt, debris and contained growth spilling from the interior shelves. What looks to be gourds are "growing" inside of the sculpture, painted like decayed flesh. There is an electrical wire leading to the bottom of the sculpture.

Breeding Ground, 2020, Birch, cast foam, earth pigment, AquaResin, resin, enamel, conduit cable, lightbulb, electric wiring, 39 × 40 × 21 in.

Installation view of an exhibition by Brandon Ndife. In a gallery there are two sculptures sitting on the floor appearing like pieces of furniture or cabinetry. Hanging on the wall are three other sculptures each appearing like a sconce, a piece of floor, and a kitchen cabinet.

Photography by Charles Benton.