paradigm lost, Charles Long’s immersive installation for Made in L.A. 2018, continues the artist’s investigation of the forms scattered on the shore of modernism’s receding wave.
His studio output of the last 3 decades reveals both a charting of this modernist trajectory and need to transcend its shortcomings. With references to Giacometti, Munch, Brancusi, and many other patriarchs who haunt the artist’s studio, paradigm lost castrates these forbearers in a poetic socio-political examination of our present moment, to nuanced and playful ends.
Situated in its own room within the museum, paradigm lost offers a place for contemplation amidst the aftermath of a patriarchal apocalypse. The relentless and sole motif of this new work is derived from an anatomical cross section of human male anatomy, which peculiarly resembles a kind of ancient mask. The historical and visceral touchstones present in this fossilized environment serve as reminders of the path that led to this extinction, while also presenting a sardonic critique, and a touch of comedic relief at the bedside of this cultural demise.
With sights fixed on the future, paradigm lost sets a stage for a walk-on scene. After the viewer takes stock of the epic tragedy that has transpired, she commences playing out a new paradigm.

mpefm U.S.A. art press release