FAILE is a collaboration between Brooklyn-based artists Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. Since 1999, McNeil and Miller have constructed multimedia installations and large-scale paintings and sculptures. These works have catapulted them to the forefront of post-Warhol imagery.
While FAILE initially operated outside of mainstream contemporary art, they quickly gained widespread awareness due to their groundbreaking use of materials, images and technology. FAILE’s culture-driven iconography and visual imagery blends high and low culture into works that can thrive either in the gallery or on the street.
Where Wild Won’t Break features FAILE’s hallmark prayer wheels. First introduced in 2008, the large, kinetic prayer wheels are hand carved from merbau, an exotic Indo-Pacific hardwood. Serving as an instrument for meditative contemplation, the wheels permit the participant to experience the images in a manner consistent with ancient Tibetan practices. As the participant turns the wheel, the wheel responds with a flow of reincarnating moving images.
The fourteen-foot tower residing at the center of the exhibition echoes FAILE’s recent collaboration with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. The immense tower is enveloped in FAILE’s signature imagery. The individual images combine endlessly to create an array of narrative possibilities, which extend into similar copper and wood works behind the tower. The pieces incorporate Texas themes drawn from FAILE’s recent visit to Dallas.
