Matthew Monahan: Square Garden

For Square Garden, Matthew Monahan (born 1972) reproduces a series of 30 six-foot drawings which seem to continuously resurface, as if the reader is navigating through an unfurling labyrinth where images rise and fall like the monuments of a fictional empire. Made from carbon paper folded into rice paper to create a series of overlapping Rorschachs, the simple drawings of figures, building materials and decorative motifs come to resemble architectural plans, disaster diagrams, exercise manuals and war games. A kaleidoscope-esque experience, Square Garden was inspired by the artist’s 2002-2003 experience of Chinese traditional architecture and garden design, as well as the contemporary urban landscape. Following in the great artist book tradition of John Baldessari and Edward Ruscha, the UCCA has called on Matthew Monahan along with LA artists Kathryn Andrews, Aaron Curry, Alex Israel, Sterling Ruby, Ryan Trecartin, and Kaari Upson to make individual artist books for The Los Angeles Project in Beijing.