Dan Colen

"Somewhere in the city of New York there are four or five—four and a half still unknown objects that belong together. Once together they'll make a work of art." I found this text accompanied by an ink drawing of a fountain pen on a Raymond Pettibon flyer in 2003. In hindsight, this was the original inspiration for the work pictured here, my first sculpture (Styrofoam, papier-mâché, and oil paint). I'm not sure of all the steps in between that original spark and the present, but here are a few things that definitely ran through my head: a brick wall in a schoolyard, a teenage symphony for God, a friend's black leather couch that I brought many late nights to a close on, America's southern landscape, Brancusi, a Styrofoam wall, a loft above a garage, a vampire's picnic, New Jersey back- yards, news, mews, pews, brews, stews, and dues.