DRURY BRENNAN

The creation process of Die Welt was a combination of fortunate coincidences and labor-intensive, hard work. When Brennan found out that he had secured the space for a show he didn’t have a single sketch. “The show kind of gestated in me as a series of feelings, intuitions that I wanted to pull through the walls” (Brennan 2014). At that point in time he was fortunate to be passing through Chicago for a friend’s wedding and had an opportunity to see the space. After that, things started to take off; “the pieces began growing in me, reactively. I saw them presciently, in a haze. I had no sketches for months and, out of fear and assertion, sent the curator a detailed email that laid out my intents”. (Brennan 2014) 

The installation process began with guide lines on the wall – just like much of Brennan’s work – careful, meticulous, mathematical, and necessary. From there, it was a flood of images. “The rest just came to me, like someone sending a rope down a well for you to climb”. The installation process was on a strict timeline – Brennan had 11 days to fill the space; from 9:00am until the doors of the Cultural Center closed at 6:00pm Brennan worked. Much of the work was done on a Genie lift, “using it like a crazy typewriter”. 

The result? A phenomenally immersive experience that powerfully critiques contemporary associations of graffiti art and Asian calligraphy.