Michael Reinsch

Predator Prayer is a sculpture consisting of five Mojo Critter 2 predator decoys wrapped in the skinned furs of unicorn tail Halloween costume accessories purchased on clearance from Target. They will be turned on and left to pulse intermittently as their life force (4 AA Kirkland Signature batteries) fades. Who is using these predator decoys and what exactly are they attempting to lure?

Predator Prayer was shown as part of Congress Yard Projects 2021 exhibition hard & SOFT that ran for 1344 hours, from the 24th of January until the Spring Equinox, showcasing works that stand resolute under the weight of the grey dripping sky, alongside works that embrace weathering transformation and decay.

Albatross is a gallery consisting of a 3”x 4” (or 4”x 3”) plastic sleeve on a black lanyard. The front side will hold an original piece of art and the backside will contain information such as an artist bio, title, and price. Michael Reinsch will be wearing the gallery at art openings such as first Thursday and everyday through the duration of an exhibition. Artists can choose to show one piece throughout the entire month or up to 31 images depending on the length of the month. Albatross will also have a website where announcements for future shows and documentation of past shows will take place.

http://www.albatross.website/

This project is not generosity but rebellion. Not a new idea but a trojan horse returning arts essential nature to the system of commodity art exchange. I am not trying to sell you on this idea. I AM FREE is an invitation. Let us invert our pockets together! My debts are vast and incomprehensible. Let us create possibility in the face of late stage capitalism! Anti-commissions where my only pressure is to give art whose value is only realized in the transaction of gifting without any expectation of reciprocity between the funder, artist, or audience. In fact, the giftee can do whatever they want with the piece they assent to receive. Hang it in their wall, sell it, paint on it, throw it away, pass it off as their own. Let us carve out a niche for the transmission of decency! A philanthropy of the capital-less! Are you one of the Philanthropissed?!?! Atlas shrugged and we are here to pick up a dropped world.

The hard-earned money of I AM FREE participants will facilitate the creation of works of art by the multi-disciplinary artist Michael Reinsch. Selecting and funding one of the many tiers of the I AM FREE Patreon will allow Michael Reinsch to give away art for free to their audience. Collages, paintings, poems, songs, and performances will be gifted by Reinsch either as a person to person exchange or as part of a public performance and the philanthropist will remain anonymous.

https://www.patreon.com/MichaelReinsch

The floral-themed crafting merchandise of the billion dollar of gift industry —gift bags, tissue paper, wrapping paper, printed scrapbook paper, washi tape, paper punches, and picture frames —all sourced primarily at big box retail and crafting stores, are used to create my heavily layered collages. Floral patterns are broken up into floral shapes which are recombined back into floral patterned backgrounds, all to address the problem of received ideas of beauty.

Conditioned as consumers, we see inventory as “in the now,” when in actuality, each generation of color schemes and patterns are instantly dated. My collages shall be temporally associated; also, in as much as they are non-archival, they will fittingly slowly fade and “wilt.” While this might be considered nostalgic (and a doubling down on sentimentality). they avoid this attribution by being such a hot compositional mess, Instead of cloyingly manipulative, I see them more like a suicide by saccharine aesthetics. The critique comes by way of self-sacrifice to the here and now.

I got too drunk one night by myself in Medford Oregon and proceeded to fall on my face in the middle of the street. This was not one of my proudest moments but instead of hiding or being ashamed i did a series of collages with my bloody face. This continued until I paid off the $2,000 dollars i owed after my insurance deducible.

The Joke Is On Me.

For "The Joke Is On Me" Performance artist Michael Reinsch will be generating a nonsense poem from jokes taken from all levels of appropriateness as he tars and feathers himself to Sousa marches while dressed as a rubber chicken.

A one man mob meting out his own punishment he is his own worst critic, especially considering the current political climate.

If he has to explain it the joke is ruined.

https://youtu.be/DWr2q5uNqTQ

I know, this is pretty stupid. I think you know what I mean. Let's be frank; it doesn't matter. I'll be reading poems that I've written: wearing a hot dog costume, eating hot dogs, and giving hot dog take-aways. The stupid trumps the why. And yet, here you are wondering.

In this performance, Reinsch makes art on demand. Reinsch equipped the gallery to create paintings, drawings, sculptures, and performances. His salesperson offered viewers a selection of time increments to choose from with corresponding dollar amounts. Reinsch created art for the allotted time. For example, $5 for one minutes; $50 for 10 min; $100 for 20 min; or up to $6,000 for a one-month project (long-term projects will be completed outside the gallery). The produced artwork remains on display in the gallery for the duration of the show. Patrons will be presented with their purchase at the end of the show.

If no one made a purchase and in between sales, Reinsch simply stood there. He will again be making work on demand at our next opening on March 17th 6 - 9pm.

For Present Tense I opened 250 empty presents wrapped in black wrapping paper and recited poems about the end of the world to a soundtrack of YouTube videos where kids open presents that freak them out with joy.

40 minute performance @ Gallery Homeland, Portland, OR for the opening of "THE WORLD IS NOT ENDING, YOUR WORLD IS ENDING," curated by Sean Joseph Patrick Carney.

I Have Nothing To Say To You at False Front.

“This A-frame-inspired sculptural installation reacts against the information conveyed in commercial signage: "There is no means to its end. Where as a merchant's public display of commodity is made prominent and to the point, alternatively Reinsch's installation offers a cleverly nondescript, attentive response to the viewer's - art patron or everyday shopper - aesthetic sense, and sometimes crave, of grandeur.” - PORT