A Martin Disler: Shedding Sk

Artist Lee Jaffe is the product of a wildly exotic blend of influences. Born and raised in New York where he grew up in a Jewish home, he began his career with an interest in Dada, Symbolist poetry and Conceptualism (Jaffe was a student in the late ’60s, when Conceptualism was a big part of the art-school curriculum). He next busied himself with film and music projects, then in 1972 met reggae legend Bob Marley and moved to Jamaica. He spent the next five years playing in Marley’s band the Wailers, producing records for various artists, and immersing himself in the Rastafarian philosophy. He even grew a head of dreads. Jaffe’s tropical sojourn came to an end in 1977 when he returned to the United States and spent the next six years hammering out a method of art making suitable to his wide-ranging concerns. His first show, in 1983, was an expression of protest against the commodification of art (work of that period incorporated fur, gold leaf and dollar bills). The unholy marriage of art and commerce is no longer a central issue for him, but his work continues to be rooted in a sense of social conscience. Among the themes he explores in an exhibition of new work at Ace Gallery are racism, the environment, the function of danger and provocation, the psychology of social relations, and the exquisite gamesmanship of Conceptualism. It’s a pretty full dance card. Rather than merely arranging artworks in a space, Jaffe attempts to activate and transform space itself. Individual pieces are consistent within themselves, Jaffe’s body of work viewed as a whole is rife with paradox. He combines found objects and low materials (a pair of dirty socks, a salami, a bull’s testicle) with elaborate fabrications and expensive handmade paper. He pays homage to obscure blues musicians in one piece, to avant-garde gurus Walter de Maria and John Cage in others.