Monsieur Zohore, *The Gerber Baby Grow-Up Plan*, 1909-2023. Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 30 inches (182.9 x 76.2 cm). Courtesy Halsey McKay Gallery.

In a whimsical, conversational exhibition, Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton, New York, showcases Hedge from artists David Kennedy Cutler and Monsieur Zohore until August 30th, 2023. As long-time admirers of each other’s work, Cutler and Zohore have come together in their first-ever collaboration, representing their friendship and intellectual likeness. Hedge is a thoughtful investigation of materials and designs found in Cutler and Zohore’s work; ropes, cages, vases, and trellises have been methodically embedded into the installation pieces and gallery walls, homologous to the word “hedge.” The artists bring the outside world inside, loosening natural and social constrictions while sparking acceptance.

David Kennedy Cutler, *Late Shift*, 2023. Inkjet transfer, acrylic, and permalac on canvas, armature wire, 88 x 69 x 3.5 inches (223.5 x 175.3 x 8.9 cm). Courtesy Halsey McKay Gallery.

The gallery room is beautifully saturated with bright colors and an idyllic mystique. The pieces are methodically placed on the walls and floor at different heights, creating visual waves and drawing the viewers’ eyes along peaks and valleys. Works of collage and installation reflect the artists’ shared motifs of domesticity, labor, and the consumption of culture; a stunning collage by Cutler titled “Late Shift” features sunflowers and yellow rubber gloves, the flowers extending beyond the canvas while the gloves are downturned, representing the responsibility that comes with domesticity. A parallel yet darker labor is highlighted in this same piece – the labor of corporate culture. The stems of the sunflowers are merged with the legs of an office chair, and x-rayed human bones are implanted into the collage. The black and gray tones of the office scene contrasted with the bright yellows and greens of the gardening scene allude to humanity’s unmistakable connection with the natural world and how that connection is subsequently destroyed by the all-consuming nature of corporate life.

David Kennedy Cutler, *Each Other’s Arms*, 2023. Inkjet transfer, acrylic, and permalac on canvas and armature wire. 52 x 30 x 3.5 inches (132.1 x 76.2 x 8.9 cm). Courtesy Halsey McKay Gallery.

Monsieur Zohore, *Van Gogh Scissor Hands*, 1889-2023. Mixed media on canvas, 46 x 38 inches (116.8 x 96.5 cm). Courtesy Halsey McKay Gallery.

Another collage piece by Zohore called “Van Gogh Scissor Hands” features photographic cutouts of hands and faces, Van Gogh’s infamous flowers, and pieces of fences. The reference to “scissor hands” cleverly emphasizes the pair’s recurring analogies of Hedge; in the film “Edward Scissorhands,” there is a scene where Edward trims hedges into works of art, and it also serves as a reference to Van Gogh famously cutting off his own ear.

David Kennedy Cutler, *Balthazar*, 2023. Inkjet transfer, acrylic, and permalac on canvas, armature wire and wood, 39.5 x 20.5 x 20 inches (100.3 x 52.1 x 50.8 cm). Courtesy Halsey McKay Gallery.

Each artist is also represented by objects peppered throughout the exhibition; they present their flower arrangements in vessels that simultaneously emphasize their artistic identities and their congruity as creatives. Zohore’s bird of paradise flower is housed in a bottle of Windex serving as a vase, the flowers slowly turning blue as it absorbs the chemicals. These pieces draw upon Zohore’s common themes of transformation and everyday domesticity. Zohore also creates an illusion of normalcy by putting the flower in a “blue water” that will inevitably transform it. Cutler’s surrealist wine bottles, titled “Balthazar,” sprout flowers that ground the viewer in the idea of natural cycles and repurposing objects that personify natural vessels. Each artist presents viewers with a brilliant display of recurring materials and themes that capture the essence of nature, domesticity, and culture while representing their friendship and likeness as artists.