Robbie McDonald GREEN IS THE NEW WHITE

About

I remember somewhere between awake and asleep I had arrived at a gathering (maybecloser to a party) and the people who surrounded me were approaching a mid-day frenzy.  In the white windowless space the people were moving in a slow but cerebral manner. I could not help myself but to bask in their festivities. Within that moment I felt surrounded by fulfillment and generosity. Pinching myself, asking am I in a new life? Is this what Utopia was like? Fully controlled, kind, and celebratory?

As I made my way through the endless maze of windowless rooms the colors flashed yellow and blue to a permanent green. This is where the variables of reality started setting in. The people that I found surrounding me in this new hue were also familiar but I was received in a very strange reception. This crowd was much more involved and required more attention than I was capable of. Trying to make my way back to the hues of the previous places was of no avail and I found no exit. Green had surrounded me and for better or for worse, I had to play my part. The walls were blank but I knew that history would green screen what ever perspective that suited it the best. I guess in my teens I had expected more, a flexibility to the world that would transcend the hand of oppression. This is not what I had suspected a life to be. I had reached the end or the beginning of the rest of my life and it was green.  Green like weed, like money, like naivety, like environmentalism, like Chroma key, like slime, like foliage, like phlegm.

Robbie McDonald has exhibited work at: Andrew Edlin (NYC), D'Amelio Terras (NYC), Essex Flowers (NYC), Black and White Gallery (NYC), Salon Fuer Kunstbuch (Austria), Jackie Klempay (Brooklyn), Bascilica (Hudson) and Fifth Floor Gallery (Los Angeles). He has performed at M+B Gallery, Bleeker Street Arts Club, Tonic, Webster Hall, The Stone, Issue Project Room, Secret Project Robot, and The Glasslands; amongst others. His work is in the collections of the MoMA PS1, Fales Library, and Brooklyn College. Robbie lives and works in Brooklyn NY.