Emmett Donlon’s first solo exhibition, “Animal Cult / Lesser Men,” explores the themes of violence and boredom and how, after thorough investigation, become one in the same. Through humor, redundancy, and the obsession of labor and language, Emmett exploits and ritualizes the cult of the image, inserting himself into a variety of different histories. Erich Honecker, cows, friends, ermine, and the artist himself all become masochists and sadists that depend on one another to make sense of their irrelevance. The sacrifice becomes the sacrificer, and the sacrificer willing switches positions. No one wants to cry when Richard Wagner starts the Ring Cycle, but once you loop back around and you’re at the beginning again, you notice that there never was a start and nothing ever is different from the end. The Gesamtkunstwerk collapses in on itself as it continues to expand, and basket weaving works similarly, but is a more time consuming task. The cow is just the same as Erich Honecker, and Erich Honecker kissing Mikhail Gorbachev becomes radically different from Mikhail Gorbachev kissing Erich Honecker. The artist is no different from the last—and so Emmett has begun to explore violence and boredom and how laughing at yourself is the only way to take yourself seriously.

Opening Reception: November 15, 6-9pm