Hunger is the Best Sauce
6/18/15 - 7/17/15
HOWARD ST - New York, NY
Isaac Brest

A young man in Japan arranged his circumstances so that he was able to travel to a distant land to study Zen with a certain Master for a three-year period. At the end of the three years, feeling no sense of accomplishment, he presented himself to the Master and announced his departure. The Master said, “You’ve been here three years. Why don’t you stay three months more?” The student agreed, but at the end of the three months he still felt that he had made no advance. When he told the Master again that he was leaving, the Master said, “Look now, you’ve been here three years and three months. Stay three weeks longer.” The student did, but with no success. When he told the Master that absolutely nothing had happened, the Master said, “You’ve been here three years, three months, and three weeks. Stay three more days, and if, at the end of that time, you have not attained enlightenment, commit suicide.” Towards the end of the second day, the student was enlightened. - J.C.


For HUNGER IS THE BEST SAUCE. , Isaac Brest has constructed two independent, site specificcinstallations. Structural
components are revealed, presenting utilitarian realities as formal relationships. Preparatory labor iscommissioned, unaware
of its ultimate contribution.

 Front Room:
I hear this is the white they use at David Zwirner, 2015
Framed gallery wall atop GeorgiaPacific DensGlass® (with black PVC vinyl strip door enclosing room)
Dimensions variable

In recognizing that which is normally overshadowed by the objects it supports, a selfless surface has been given its
due reverence. Set amongst a bright yellow backdrop of fiberglass sheathing, a harbinger of contemporary urban
development and forward progression, three framed segments of gallery wall remain unencumbered, devoid of
branding and design, relinquished from their predetermined duty —  to bear the art object. This emancipation helps
disclose histories of exhibition programming, as doctored drywall and spackled screw holes peer through coat after
coat of Benjamin Moore Regal ® Select Super White Flat paint.

Back Room:
Early Retirement (Subprime), 2015
Unpainted gallery wall
Dimensions variable

An arrangement of paintings are forged by the decision to abstain from painting. Five works expose the honest
details entombed behind the gallery wall, extracting a functional composition never intended to be viewed by the
general public. Sheets of drywall, precolored by factory specification, are prepared for painting by professional
laborers, only to be preserved before their irrevocable concealment.

*In a side room, four types of specialty drywall, some American, some European, are framed in their original state.