“Throughout history, masculinist objects like those Jackel makes, and the actions/thoughts they intone have been put to exploitive, even fascist ends — the subtext being strength leads and the rest of us follow. Or else. Jackel witnessed (if from the safe distance of graduate school) incongruities of male ‘heroics’ played out in our numerous military actions. Make no mistake, the works question this brutality. But more intriguing is the lens of inquiry he brings to bear. The artist is a black belt martial arts master, an archery expert, and war and its trappings fascinate him.  Yet he is a pacifist, and as an artist he complicates already tough subjects in formal and conceptual ways that render male heroics and their constant bedfellow — violence — open for intelligent and nuanced consideration.” – Marlena Donahue via Visual Art Source.

Ben Jackel: American Imperium is on view at L.A. Louver through March 28, 2015.

IMAGES: (clockwise) Fury, 2014, mahogany, graphite, ebony, 7 x 61 x 32 ½ in. (17.8 x 154.9 x 82.6 cm); Zumiwalt (ship), 2014, Douglas fir, mahogany and graphite, 8 x 45 x 7 in. (20.3 x 114.3 x 17.8 cm); Installation view of American Imperium at L.A. Louver