Dennis Hollingsworth

Oedipus Sandwich: Paul McCarthy

Oedipus is still killing his father, it seems.

Given that this installation premiered here before it travels to Hauser & Wirth in NYC, given that McCarthy is probably the one of the best artist generated in Los Angeles, I think that the McCarthy show at The Box is probably the greatest private exhibition in the art history of LA (excluding institutional shows such as Schimmel's Helter Skelter).

Upon seeing the videos of McCarthy as the bad daddy inside the gallery, the thought of Sophocles crept in. This morning, I again watched videos of the Gospel at Colonus by lee Breuer and Bob Telson, created in 1985. Sophocles' third act of his Theban Plays is a consummation of the tragic, the nature of which never lent it much leverage with the modern stage since the play was about reconciliation, a limp driver for drama. This was the genius of the Gospel at Colonus: the marriage of black Pentecostal gospel and ancient Greek tragedy, one reinforced the other. I wonder though, does McCarthy have a Colonus -a third act- in him?