Bjorn Copeland's 2013 Exhibition at Jack Hanley Gallery Explores Failure and Sonic Detritus

Bjorn Copeland presented an exhibition at Jack Hanley Gallery from September 5 to October 6, 2013, located at 327 Broome Street in New York City. The show featured works from 2013 that transformed broken musical equipment and found objects into sculptural forms. One piece, BD Mix, incorporated a Yamaha amplifier oozing black polyurethane foam, reflecting Copeland's background in the musical collective Black Dice and an embrace of distortion. A large balsa wood glider, disassembled and balanced in a white five-gallon bucket, achieved a sculptural quality reminiscent of Brancusi while undermining functional flight. Two-dimensional works included reconfigured text pushed toward illegibility and appropriated imagery like a Dunkin' Donuts advertisement for tuna salad on a bagel in Remnant Screen IV. The exhibition's mood drew from street finds and a Bushwick flaneurial sensibility, with elements described as abject, ad hoc, and pop detritus. References to Samuel Beckett's "Fail better" and filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's perspective on failure provided conceptual framing. Critics noted the works' ability to balance narrative associations with formal purity, using brokenness as a creative starting point rather than striving for improvement.