Jason Yates
Are We Still Friends?
2 May – 13 June 2021
Serenity Now! And Forever! Or Never…
Have you ever been close to an addict? Maybe you’ve had an alcoholic parent, a junkie boyfriend, very likely, a cokehead party acquaintance. Addicts crave attention and validation, but most of all love (and/or control). To be close to an addict is to navigate a maze of regrets, revisionist histories, apologies, and insecurities. Brazen confidence one day, bitter remorse the next can lead to a barrage of boundary crossing questions: What happened last night? Did I do something wrong? What’s your problem? Why won’t you talk to me? Are we still friends? Are we okay…?
I expect, like me, Jason Yates knows both sides of this scenario all too well. In the exhibition Are We Still Friends?, some of these inquiries are given a twist for the new world order. Thirteen plus months into the pandemic, these Qs leave the realm of avant/pendant 12-Step amends and take on a broader relatability. What remains after all these months of isolation? What really matters? More importantly, without the pressures of social networking, who is left and who really matters, now and into the unknown future.
Are We Still Friends? will present a mural work from Yates’s new body of coloring-book alphabet drawings alongside a droopy dog sculpture. The ever-loyal friend, the one who never abandons their master, seems worn from the weight of steadfast obligation. He sits in the shadow of the words “Are We Okay?” an apt question for these times, whether to the “royal we,” taking stock of personal self-care, or a query posed to those that got left behind in the wake of cancellations. Perhaps this dog embodies a godly omniscience – he’s watched his master’s mistakes, their struggles, helpless to intervene, or he uneasily anticipates a return to “normal,” a time when we must be responsible again.
Throughout his near thirty year practice, Jason Yates has deftly combined childish naïveté with impending doom; Are We Still Friends? marks a timely and refined realization of these investigations. Over the last many months, I’ve heard so much talk about the relief felt not having to see those we don’t want to, not having to make small talk, but will this feeling last or will we just slip back to the same old ass sniffing and stranger humping. Dogs will be dogs, after all…
Jason Yates is a Cancer Sun, Leo Moon, Sagittarius Rising. Mugs, t-shirts, posters, and a coloring book will be produced on the occasion of Are We Still Friends? There will be a handful of “Low Tea” events hosted at New Low throughout the duration of the exhibition, where you might run into an old friend/enemy or maybe make a new one.