Roxy Paine’s exhibition at New York’s Marianne Boesky Gallery is inspired by those hateful airport security checkpoint we’re all way too familiar with. ‘Checkpoint’ is a near life size replica of the real thing, which Paine sees as representative of both banality and larger social anxieties. Made entirely of maple wood and supported by an aluminum structure, the site is rendered in minute detailed. Everything has been recreated with impeccable attention to detail, and could probaly start processing passengers at a moment’s notice.
In his body of work, Roxy Paine mirrors natural processes, drawing on the tension between organic and man-made environments, between the human desire for order and nature’s drive to reproduce. His highly detailed simulations of natural phenomena include an ambitious series of hand-wrought stainless steel trees, vitrines of mushroom and plant life in various states of decay and several large-scale machines designed to replicate creative processes.
