With a keen sense of the inherent problems often encountered in communications between artist and viewer, Dave McKenzie uses objects, actions, and an equally poignant sense of humor to bridge that divide.

While the traditional exhibition format can be seen as unfolding through space during a fixed time, McKenzie’s exhibition at the AAM will unfold over time in a variety of spaces. In the AAM Lower Gallery, McKenzie will present a sprawling environmental installation comprised of nearly twenty boom boxes, two video projections, and three hand-made sculptures of refrigerator boxes in various stages of use. The work reflects on living in America, both at the cusp of a historic presidency and also shortly after that election. Colliding world music, political speech, and popular culture, McKenzie’s installation will function like reading the newspaper or watching the evening news and mapping the juxtaposition of stories, which reinforce each other at times and cancel each other out at others.

For the past five summers, the Aspen Art Museum has worked with some of the most engaging contemporary artists of our time to produce an AAM float for Aspen’s Old-Fashioned Fourth of July Celebration and Parade. The 2010 AAM float will be made by McKenzie, who in the past has created portraits of himself as a piñata, a papier-mâché figure and related bobblehead doll, as well as superimposing his own likeness onto video footage of a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day float. Following the Aspen parade, the AAM will host its traditional community picnic on the museum grounds with art activities for the kids, free BBQ for AAM members by Aspen’s Hickory House, and beer provided by Aspen Brewing Company.

Combining the exhibition in the AAM Lower Gallery with the creation of a float for Aspen’s Old-Fashioned Fourth of July Parade, along with other actions, McKenzie’s Aspen exhibition will emphasize his ongoing interest in returning, revisiting, and addressing the temporal aspects of all relationships.