Crushing It
Thomas Arthur Schaefer
August 3rd - September 27th, 2019
Crushing It is a solo exhibition by Thomas Arthur Schaefer presented by The Artifice in Atlanta, GA.
The exhibition transforms the discarded beer can through painting, printmaking, drawing, and sculpture—using the familiar packaging of Arches Brewing as both subject and material.
Through repetition, consumption, and reuse, Crushing It considers what happens when an everyday object reaches the end of its intended life and is put back into circulation as something new.
Thomas Arthur Schaefer
Crushing It begins with a simple physical act: drink the beer, crush the can, and consider what remains.
Presented at Arches Brewing, the exhibition used the brewery's own cans as subject, material, and recurring form. Thomas Arthur Schaefer translated crushed cans through drawing, hand-printed silkscreen, large acrylic paintings, sculpture, and the cans themselves. Across these different processes, the disposable package moves repeatedly between object and image—consumed, damaged, reproduced, embellished, and ultimately returned to the brewery as art.
The exhibition's serial works embrace repetition and process. Flagship Arches cans became five-color silkscreen editions; a broader selection of the brewery's beers became large painted panels finished with diamond dust. A rotating sculpture gathered the actual crushed reference cans beneath a glass dome, preserving the discarded objects from which the more polished images had been constructed. The logic owes something to Pop Art and the repeated commodity image, while replacing the pristine product with evidence of what happens after consumption.
That transformation became especially pronounced in a series made from cans of Lloyd's Light, a beer Arches brewed for Atlanta restaurant and bar Lloyd's. Its name—and the beer's “Whatever Man” tagline—provided a route back to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and the film's bartender, Lloyd. Schaefer flattened the emptied cans by hand and drew scenes and characters from the film directly onto their battered surfaces.
Some of these works were then returned to the world as free, hidden artworks. Locations and clues were released through Instagram, sending people out to find them around Atlanta and in cities Schaefer visited. Other examples were retained for exhibition. The project allowed an object designed to be bought, emptied, and discarded to circulate once again, now carrying a different kind of value.
Crushing It operates within Schaefer's idea of retro-consumerism: taking material that has completed its intended commercial life and pushing it back into circulation as something altered, preserved, and newly desirable.
Spinning Can Array
Mixed media
NFS
Crushed Bohemian Riot Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed LLyod's Light Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Low Viz Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Mystic Bock Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Winter's Night Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Festbier Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Triboulet Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Five Week Sail Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Southern Bel' Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Mexican Empire Painting Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Queen's Weiss Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Southside Lager Process Drawing
Packaging label, ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
8.5 x 11 inches / 21.6 x 27.9 cm
$60
Crushed Bohemian Riot
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed LLyod's Light
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Low Viz
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Mystic Bock
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Winter's Night
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Festbier
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Triboulet
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Five Week Sail
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Southern Bel'
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Mexican Empire
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Queen's Weiss
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Southside Lager
Acrylic and diamond dust on wood panel
24 x 36 inches / 61 x 91.4 cm
$600
Crushed Southern Bel' (edition of 100)
3-color silkscreen on FRENCH Speckletone Starch White 100C
18 x 24 inches / 45.7 x 61 cm
$50
Crushed Mexican Empire (edition of 100)
4-color silkscreen on FRENCH Speckletone Starch White 100C
18 x 24 inches / 45.7 x 61 cm
$50
Crushed Queens Weiss (edition of 100)
3-color silkscreen on FRENCH Speckletone Starch White 100C
18 x 24 inches / 45.7 x 61 cm
$50
Crushed Southside Lager (edition of 100)
4-color silkscreen on FRENCH Speckletone Starch White 100C
18 x 24 inches / 45.7 x 61 cm
$50
Crushed Southern Bel' Poster Process Drawing
Ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
11 x 8.5 inches / 27.9 x 21.6 cm
$60
Crushed Mexican Empire Poster Process Drawing
Ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
11 x 8.5 inches / 27.9 x 21.6 cm
$60
Crushed Queens Weiss Poster Process Drawing
Ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
11 x 8.5 inches / 27.9 x 21.6 cm
$60
Crushed Southside Lager Poster Process Drawing
Ink, tissue paper, and acrylic on cardstock
11 x 8.5 inches / 27.9 x 21.6 cm
$60