“Whatever You Residue Don’t Leave Me” was a solo show curated by Jessie Devereaux for Comfort Station Logan Square. During the month of the show, I also programmed a screening of Kenneth Anger films with the GG Allin documentary “Hated”, titled GG VS. ANGER, and a closing event with a performance and installation titled Untiled (House Show). The press release is below, and the work list here.

“E. Aaron Ross’ show confronts the viewer with the repeated visual of decay: moldy loaves of bread encased in blocks of resin; a table top covered in shattered glass and festering milk; the mysterious monolith that reveals itself as a semen-soaked blanket.

These performance relics rally against the volatility of a constantly changing present — the cascade of moments in time that blur out what preceded.

“I don’t like thinking about things abstractly,” said Ross, “and I use my work to fight against convenient disassociation.” We naturally disassociate ourselves from concepts that cause us discomfort; but Ross’ elegant aesthetic lures us in and then confronts with the violence and absurdity of the day to day.

Ross pushes himself to uncomfortable lengths in order to communicate the universal human experience of time and decay. Wrestling grey and relative concepts into chaotic tangibility — into video, performance, and sculpture.

Whatever you Residue Don’t Leave Me is curated by Jessie Devereaux for Comfort Station Logan Square.”

A tiny video on infinite loop, projected from a tiny projector, onto the wall in a low position. The red strip that is pulled through my mouth is the plastic casing that comes on every piece of bologna. It is common, when removing the bologna from its casing, that small chunks become stuck on this loop. If you are a fan of bologna, you will probably try very hard to eat off all of the little chunks.

Originally shown as part of “White Feelings”, curated by Bert Stabler. Ideally to be viewed in a gallery setting on a seamless infinite loop.

Resembling the Sun consists of a standard piece of bologna nailed to the gallery wall. Each piece is hung for 24 hours and replaced at the beginning of the day, every day the exhibition is open. When the bologna is replaced, the old one has its plastic casing removed and added to the pile of existing casings, known as “Accumulated Days”. The stain that remains after the show is known as the Shadow of the Sun.

Something that I love about this piece that’s hard to see in photos is that the legs are still intact, folded up underneath the table. The top is the result of the repetitious and ceremonial pouring of glasses of milk and smashing them. “Spoiled (Video)” was also made during this process.

Some Kind of Anal Emotions (26:01) comes from a series in which images are made by shooting long exposures of a monitor with video of internet porn playing on it. Each photo is a single video, with the length of the exposure determined by the length of the video. The title of the photograph is the name of the video as it is listed on its respective site. The photos are shot onto film using a 4×5 view camera, allowing the lines of the screen to be highly visible upon a closer look.

Some of the other pieces in this series include “That Is How We Fuck (6:04)”, “Chasing a Fantasy (29:23)”, and “Cruel Mom Fucked Son (8:01)”.

Performed at Dock 6 Art & Design #9 in Chicago on June 11, 2016. Performed by Dan Sullivan, Edra Soto, Eorl Scholl, and E. Aaron Ross. The video snipits seen here were also projected in the space, and were a special edit of the documentary “Animal Passions”, made by Ross for the performance. More information on the video can be found here: https://eaaronross.com/documents/animal_passions_description.pdf

This was the second performance of its kind, altered for this location and for my collaborators in the performance, the first iteration being “Untitled (House Show)” performed at Comfort Station in Chicago earlier that year. The photography featured in the video and below is courtesy of Phil Parcellano.

“A Series of Flat Circles (Single Stack)”
Bologna, resin, 1980’s dagger known by the manufacturer as “The Kid”

“A Series of Flat Circles (Double Stack)”
Bologna, resin, civil war era dagger

Originally screened at AND Gallery in Jackson, MS as part of “I Feel Your Opposition in This Light”, curated by Lease Agreement and Adam Farcus.

Your Ass is Like a Dream (34:14) comes from a series in which images are made by shooting long exposures of a monitor with video of internet porn playing on it. Each photo is a single video, with the length of the exposure determined by the length of the video. The title of the photograph is the name of the video as it is listed on its respective site. The photos are shot onto film using a 4×5 view camera, allowing the lines of the screen to be highly visible upon a closer look.

Some of the other pieces in this series include “That Is How We Fuck (6:04)”, “Chasing a Fantasy (29:23)”, and “Cruel Mom Fucked Son (8:01)”.