INTERRUPTED
GEOFFRY SMALLEY/TOM TORLUEMKE
MN Gallery, Chicago
October 19-November 17, 2001

Interrupting is a really hard thing to do. We are
besieged by physical, visual and aural detrius in our
lives constantly, and there's never enough time to
stop, sit down, and make sense of it all. Life keeps
moving and stuff just builds, going unchecked.
Somewhere along the line however, things somehow get
stopped, and it's during these moments that we're able
to catch a glimpse of the ubiquitous, racing monster
we call ordinary existence.

Geoffry Smalley makes paintings of moments culled from
ordinary existence. He takes visual fragments from
suburban life, freezes them, and tries to find out
what it is exactly that makes them tick. There is
evidence of freeways, cars, malls and blocks upon
blocks of aluminum siding; and strangely enough, not a
single breathing soul can be found anywhere. They are
records of a modest and nearly disabled paradise,
fueled and inhabited by anonymous sources or
frighteningly enough, nothing at all.
-Alex Jovanovich