Buster Graybill

Buster Graybill’s exhibition “Progeny of Tush Hog” takes advantage of a symbiosis between Minimalist form and the importance of setting in a way that is both playful and smart. In his video Ramtastic, 2010, and a series of photographs, Graybill has animated several polyhedron forms with the intention of observing how the objects could exist in a setting that serves not merely as a backdrop but as an engaged space. His hollow sculptures are fabricated from diamond plate aluminum and other industrial materials, bored with holes that allow corn feed to spill out while various wild game––which populate the pastoral environment––jostle with them as captured on nocturnal cameras. This scenario speaks to the intrusion of urban development into rural settings in a way that is both absurd and poignant. The title comes from the Southern vernacular for a tusked feral hog, but “tush hog” can also refer to a rough-hewn individual who behaves like an animal.

The show presents objects that have been marred by the animal encounter. They silently rest amid the white walls of the gallery space like a gaggle of drunkards proud of their debauched bruises. Nocturnal photographs and video provide evidence of a sort of witches’ Sabbath––Aoudad sheep, for instance, slamming into the forms with juvenile and hedonistic delight.

Graybill is addressing environment in ways that are comical as well as serious, rather than pretentious. This work rides more comfortably in its surroundings than other Minimalist works. While perhaps missing some of the sublimity that that genre traditionally strives for, it conjures up a clever syntax that responds to contemporary issues such as suburban sprawl and “white cube gallery” displacement. His forms speak of an investigation of Minimalism’s visual language that can be intimidating to the casual observer and also expand upon the awareness those who are familiar with the genre.