'The Sunset Ceases to Delight' by Royce Allen Hobbs at Chicken Coop Contemporary, Portland

In Royce Allen Hobbs’ The Sunset Ceases to Delight, we are presented with the used and repurposed water from a sensory deprivation tank. When sensory overload and unfocus is the everyday, the experience of deprivation is shocking and challenging. The banality of water in a jerrycan is demanding; don’t stop at the water’s surface.

In the accompanying sculptures, all Untitled, the underlying component is the disposal and reintegration of past occupations--the fall off of an experience once had. A disabled horn speaker, dried cow’s trachea, and abandoned wasp nest share visual and audible silences analogous to a home once lived in, air once breathed, and announcements no longer made. All four works have a subtle relationship to each other in that they are elusive, predominately white and question our needs for artistic fulfillment; to a degree that fosters intimacy.