We all Worship something.
Sex, Money, Fame - pick your poison.
Caprell and Iliopulos's debut exhibition, entitled WOR$HIPS, merges two individual styles to create a series of paintings and sculptures that embodies both the kinetic composition of Caprell's abstract works and the visceral intensity of Iliopulos' culturally iconic paintings and photographs.
This collaboration began a decade ago and entered a season of discovery this year as an alchemic mix of opposing perspectives found mutual bonding in their Los Angeles studio. Caprell and Iliopulos aimed for a visual, magical playfulness as they engaged and achieved a parallel symmetry in their work.
The initial inspiration for the work of Caprell and Iliopulos is the conceptual juxtaposition of principled desires with the inner turmoil produced by those desires. Gold and silver are symbols of the value of these individual idolatries. Black, the void within when we go without. Bullets and bullet holes signify the violence and pain that ensue when our true passions are threatened.
A series of circles evocative of a Mayan calendar arouses a spark of prophecy fulfilled the inevitable end of all pursuits. Rings of guns and soldiers orchestrate a cerebral duality and provoke an illusion of current political issues. "We fight for what we want, win or lose, then fight again." A perpetual cycle of humankind's fleeting self-fulfillment, unchanged from ancient times to modern civilization.
Drawing upon childhood memories, Caprell and Iliopulos express the origination of worship in the world of toys. "Toys we grabbed, toys we couldn't reach and toys we clung to that were ours." Figurine soldiers and rocking horses, both childhood icons, form the basic vocabulary of a language that unifies the work through compositional repetition.
Video cameras and mirrors magnify and expand to a broader reality of the artists' aim. "Behind humanity's countless targets of adoration is a promise of personal significance, security, freedom and control." The creations of Caprell and Iliopulos simultaneously mock and glamourize our self-indulgent natures.
