David Colosi: SNAILEIDOLIA

Open Source Gallery presents SNAILEIDOLIA, a project by David Colosi. Snaileidolia deals with the tension between snails existing in and for themselves versus the human inclination to view them as an extractable resource. Since the early Phoenicians who extracted Tyrian purple from Murex snails (10,000 snails for 1 gram of dye), humans have exploited snails for research and use in the culinary, cosmetic, medical, and scientific fields – among others – driving some to extinction and mass-producing others as commodities. Snails have their own reason for being without humans enlisting them to our needs, yet humans can’t resist.

Colosi’s obsession with snails has manifested in many ways over the years with both snail fictions and facts. His first presentation of Snaileidolia in 2022 showed hundreds of fabric knots ranging from 1/16 inch to 10 inches and slime trails. For his exhibition at Open Source Gallery, Colosi flips this format by manipulating scale. Consistent with his idea of Three-Dimensional Literature, Snaileidolia will include a collection of short stories that readers can pair with the work presented in the gallery. During the course of the exhibition, he will read from the collection allowing viewers to experience the artworks and stories simultaneously. Colosi has also organized a panel discussion with international malacologists and Snail Safaris with naturalists in Brooklyn to introduce the local human community to the local snail communities.

David Colosi’s solo projects have been exhibited at Council St. and Highways (Los Angeles), Galerie Catherine Bastide (Brussels), FRAC Bretagne and Musee des Morlaix (France) and Cueto Project (New York). He has been an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works and LMCC (New York), Le Centre Du Monde (France), VARS (California), and Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida). Colosi’s short fiction has appeared in The Wisconsin Review, The Offbeat, Permafrost, Intercourse and Konch and his poetry in From Totems to Hip Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002; Obsidian; and the Los Angeles Times. His books include Miss Pumpernickel Bread, Towards a Three-Dimensional Literature Part 1, Letters to Poly, Laughing Blood, Imaginary Numbers and Other Calculated Fictions, and The Life and Thoughts of a Retired Apostrophe. He received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2009, and he produces the Napping Wizard Sessions podcast. (http://www.davidcolosi.com/)