Ian Gerson at A.I.R. Gallery

Here at the Publicide headquarters, we're constantly trying to push the limits of paper production magic–we're always on a quest to perfect the ways duplexing, foil and gilding can transform paper into precious-looking objects.

Accordingly, we're big fans of the artist Ian Gerson, who works a LOT of paper magic realism into their practice. Ian specializes in creating meticulously detailed environments, frequently businesses or booths—like the temporary travel agency they installed in an empty Italian ice parlor or the faux park ranger booth they built at Socrates Sculpture Park. Gerson builds structures out of wood and found materials and fleshes them out with uncannily real cardboard renderings of everyday objects—all right up our alley since we are fools for well-executed office accoutrements as well as anything made from chipboard. 

Cardboard office set complete with old-school PC and telephone 

Paper tape dispenser, paper clock and paper pencil sharpener

This park ranger booth looked so real that a procession of park-goers stopped by every day to ask for information, not realizing Gerson's desk was kitted out with a fake cardboard telephone, tape dispenser and pencil sharpener.

Gerson's current solo show, Rock Jetty Deli & Food Corp, deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Rockaway, Queens, where they live. After watching the storm devastation from their apartment by the ocean, Gerson chose not to evacuate and instead immediately began working with their neighbors to rebuild the ravaged community. This meant living for months with no heat or electricity, scarce transportation, and frustratingly slow-to-nonexistent response from would-be relief organizations and the city itself. In the seven months since Sandy hit, Gerson helped run a soup kitchen, got involved with a bevy of grassroots relief efforts, and worked towards their goal of "knowing every person who lives in Rockaway."

Gerson drew from these life-changing post-Sandy experiences to create Rock Jetty Deli & Food Corp, an immersive tableau recreating the scene in Rockaway after the storm.

A boarded-up bodega, an ATM indefinitely out of service, a scattering of debris and a brown highwater mark painted on the walls—along with projections of footage from Rockaway and Gerson's interactive performance as bodega vendor—take the viewer straight to the beach in Queens in the months after the storm. In this exhibition, Gerson's trademark cardboard office accoutrements give way to a different kind of working object--here the trompe-l'oeil cardboard pieces incude a range of post-Sandy leitmotifs like a generator, a solar panel, and gas tanks.

Cardboard generator and gas can

A cardboard power strip so real, people try to plug their phones into it

The installation is so faithful to Rockaway that Rockaway residents tend to become emotional while viewing the show and revisiting their experiences after the storm. Gerson observed gallery visitors trying to plug their phones into a power strip made out of cardboard—a triumph of scene-setting AND paper arts.

The show is up at A.I.R. Gallery in Dumbo through this weekend, with a closing party this Sunday the 23rd from 4-6pm.