Ron Mason Gassaway Modern Narcotics Vol. 7: The High Altitude Allure of Chronic Mundanity
Statement Enter the dragon chasing vortex of self-enhancement schemes imagined and realized by post-WWII leisure addicts, nursing the soft concerns of first world wounds with a third world salve of dubious origin, rubbed into the psyche through repetitive circular motions. Well trained in the destructive art of dissatisfaction, as exemplified by the glamorized global colonial class, we risk suffocation within a self-imposed killing jar of confectionary stimulus. When our over-saturated sensors are rendered useless, many naturally embrace the only escape available, an absolution of all cognitive input discretion, resulting in a uniquely mindless sanctuary found within the banal vacuum of streaming mundanity. Reminiscent of meringue pie and reflective of our culture's relative faith in nothing, the zen-like emptiness of the trivial and superficial offers us a perfectly amorphous sense of being. If desire is suffering, we as a society have found the most accessible, and affordable, narcotic and/or religion for our transient pain, unabashed meaninglessness. This work is dedicated to the progenitors of chronic mundanity.
Bio Ron Mason Gassaway was born in Portland, Oregon in 1969. An established commercial art director and illustrator for over twenty years, he is currently furthering his role as an installation artist (emphasizing video, sculpture, performance & music composition), while completing his BA in Art Practices at Portland State University. His process and output tends to address the malleability of reality and the art of deception, in particular the perpetuation of capitalism as a form of mysticism, brought forth through a fusion of psychology and advertising. He has exhibited and screened work at the ATA Gallery in San Francisco, the Portland Art Museum NW Film Center, the Taipei Biennial, the NW Film Forum and the PDX Film Festival.
