Breeding Ground: New Detroit Sculpture at MONA

last friday, on my way home from work, I stopped by MONA (Museum of New Art in Pontiac, MI) to take a look at the exhibition Breeding Ground: New Detroit Sculpture, co-curated by Kevin Beasley and Christopher Samuels, which featured the works of Nathan Morgan, Abigail Newbold, Andrew Thompson, and the Detroit Projection Project (as well as the curators'), dispersed in four galleries and two floors, all delineated and labeled in a convenient map.

due to a scheduling conflict, I was unable to come to the opening reception, which greatly diminished my experience of the pieces displayed - the scale and interaction with the human body (other than mine, and that of multiple bodies) could potentially and significantly have affected my responses, as well as seeing the works at night (as opposed to 2 in the afternoon).

in preparation to the panel discussion to take place on November 01 at 4 pm, the gallery that features the works by Nathan Morgan was modified from its original arrangement. I am aware that my reading of his art may not have been 100% aligned with his intended choice, so I elected not to write about it (though what I perceived seemed interesting). the brevity of my visit also did not allow me to fully experience the two video works by the Detroit Projection Projects (aka Steve Coy and Brandon Wally), so I will not write about these works either. for the purpose of this blog I thought this would be the best option - I am certain more opportunities to look at their works will arise in a near future.

there were a few words floating in my head as I looked at the works presented. they, in one way or another, could be applied to all works seen, in both positive and negative aspects.

S: (adj) facile (arrived at without due care or effort; lacking depth) "too facile a solution for so complex a problem"
S: (adj) facile (performing adroitly and without effort) "a facile hand"
S: (adj) eloquent, facile, fluent, silver, silver-tongued, smooth-spoken (expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively) "able to dazzle with his facile tongue"; "silver speech"

S: (adj) transcendent, surpassing (exceeding or surpassing usual limits especially in excellence)
S: (adj) transcendent (beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding) "the notion of any transcendent reality beyond thought"

S: (n) transformation, transmutation, shift (a qualitative change)
S: (n) transformation ((mathematics) a function that changes the position or direction of the axes of a coordinate system)
S: (n) transformation (a rule describing the conversion of one syntactic structure into another related syntactic structure)
S: (n) transformation ((genetics) modification of a cell or bacterium by the uptake and incorporation of exogenous DNA)
S: (n) transformation, translation (the act of changing in form or shape or appearance) "a photograph is a translation of a scene onto a two-dimensional surface"

on the first floor, in the Front Window gallery I encountered the works by Andrew Thompson. I have seen and enjoyed some of his works in other exhibitions, but did not notice a particular correlation to what I have seen him produce before to these, with the exception that a personal narrative seems to lie somewhere between the artist's mind and the title of the piece(s). Constituted of refuse and recyclable materials, an inference to the human body (via humanoid shapes, silhouettes and house/dwelling) was made throughout the space. while I can see that these work relate to the vague exhibition description found online (Detroit as a scavenger's paradise), I do not particularly understand why and how this garbage/recycling aesthetic has to do ONLY with Detroit, but with any urban setting - I am also not sure how the word "new" applies here, as works like this have been made for a long time, every where, in both high and low art. While laborious and obsessive in appearance, process and scale, and with beautiful but very minute sections (the weaving of plastic grocery bags come to mind) the pieces overall seemed facile to me, slightly obvious, and not transformative enough from its original source materials - nor did it transcend enough (or at all) its current museum setting - too much of a good thing sometimes is just too much. perhaps an outdoor installation would have shed a more interesting light onto these. I also wonder where these materials will go to once the work is deinstalled - I fear that it might end up where it came from, and to some extent potentially reinforce or contribute to what is being critiqued (this last thought could be applied to the exhibition as a whole actually).

moving along upstairs I first visited the North gallery where the works of Christopher Samuels and Kevin Beasley were installed. Samuels' use of prefabricated materials and construction tools provided an elegant solution at times. the image above depicts in two views by far my favorite piece of his, which led me to believe (in retrospect) that here what had occurred is what lacked in other parts of the exhibition. this untitled piece transported me outside Detroit, outside Pontiac, outside MONA, and even outside my own physicality - I concentrated on the fragility of the form in front of me, and the implied tension and descension. the fact that it was installed in the most neutral section of the museum aided my experience. the other sculptures by Samuels , displayed in other two alcove, were not as successful to me. the thought that came to mind was that the work seemed mostly "staged", rather than installed (the word facile again resurfacing). for me that was not satisfying. titles (or at least numbers) and a statement would endow focus to these. the poetics of his pieces were also diluted and lost to me given their proximity to one another - it could be interesting if each artist had work in all four galleries and therefore dialogue with one another.

adjacent to Samuels' were Kevin Beasley's works, which to me appeared to center mostly on the congealing of found materials in mutable substances, as well as what I assume to be found objects, with the repeating of round shapes somewhat prevalent. while transformation here was a more evident concern than in Samuels', the transcendence again lacked. his recent solo exhibition at the org.contemporary gallery allowed me to experience Beasley's work under a much more appropriate light (pun intended), his vision there clearer and simpler but more poignant than here, and the beauty of his simplicity seemed more intentional then as well. While navigating through the space here I had a hard time understanding what was purposeful and what was accidental/already there (the North gallery is not spare on industrial fixtures that have a similar texture and feel to Beasley's art), but not in an intriguing or complex manner but rather distracting and dissatisfying (as if I had taken a bite on a piece of fruit and tasted texture but not flavor). it could be interesting that, in their goal of articulating Detroit, these artists could have reconfigured/neutralized the MONA spaces more by remodeling them (even wall paint and carpet removal) prior to installing their work - a makeover practice that Detroit itself needs more, from a grass-roots and proactive position (as a history - of peoples, objects, towns, etc - can be displayed as an interpretation, rather than as an index). I would be curious to see Beasley's work at the Cave, or similar setting.

last but not least I moved over to the South gallery (the main MONA space) to the works by Abigail Newbold. While the facile aspect of other works in this exhibition veered towards the random, here I found an ease of entry/encountering that was truly joyful. Newbold transformed the materials she utilized (a combination of found knickknacks and mass-produced furnishings with home-improvement store supplies) into large but portable platform environments that were both funny, intimate, familiar and somewhat forlorn. her pieces also transported me away from the (literal and metaphorical) surrounding noise of the gallery, and had the potential of physically me transport me outside the gallery too, because they rest on industrial-sized casters (I imagine that any attempts of moving these in their entirety might aide in their own demise, since they were assembled in loco and potentially too large to fit into its elevators, a concept in and of itself extremely pertinent to this geography). their titles also imply a distant location (with a hint of resort getaway or homemade simulacra to boot). while they reminded me of Australian artist Adam Norton's work quite a lot (and many others who work in a futuristic modular-home approach), I was able to push those thoughts aside immediately and really see their poetic possibilities. in my view these pieces complexly spoke about Detroit, about living in Detroit, about being and thinking Detroit (and/or what I imagine all of these to be to many other individuals) - of an uncertain fear and dignified grace, with a dash of kitsch and sass amidst its post-industrial dissolution and blurred boundaries; that desire to simultaneous leave and set roots (here and somewhere else). these qualities would position this work to exist and interact with a local social perception elsewhere, not just here, and speak to the transient nature of a globalized but interconnected society, and its citizens.

my reading and experiencing of the art might have been somewhat different if the facilities of MONA were also further neutralized (sans carpet, stains and inconsistent wall color and surface, etc). I hope their new annex gallery at the Russell will solve some of these issues of space/environmental interference on works of art and continue giving the opportunities for the new generations of artists to best display their works, because MONA is one of (if not the most) interesting alternative spaces in the metro area.

I only wish I had been able to attend the opening reception and conversed with the artists to get a better understanding of their work. ditto in regards to the panel discussion (my sincere apologies). I also wish that the texts provided online were better articulated, not filled with vague generalizations about sculpture and Detroit (as well as statements by each artist, which I did not find, this of course could be my mistake). the somewhat repetitive statement of placing their art practice as unique (have we not moved past the avant-garde quest?) and socially engaging (what constitutes a "social landscape" anyway and why is that exclusive to here?) without ever defining what those terms t actually mean or meant within this curatorial program, lacked a much-needed substance that could broaden what their practice can/could be and become. as is, the ephemerality of some pieces might veer into non-existence and oblivion, rather than transcendence.

what may make the works in Breeding Ground relevant to our times is not their connection to Detroit or urbanity or their sculptural statement/manifesto... but what happens with these works once they leave this gallery space.

click here to visit MONA's Breeding Ground page
click here to visit the Cave gallery
click here to visit the org.contemporary gallery
click here to read an article on Adam Norton

violence in movies

last night I watched at home the movie Knowing (directed by Alex Proyas, starring Nicholas Cage)... I have been going through this period where I enjoy reading sad books and watching action/sci-fi movies, don't ask me why.... so tonight I clicked on this movie while eating my dinner (can never go wrong with Anita's Kitchen)...

it was interesting to see that the main character was a college professor, specially since reading recently on CNN.com that college professor is in the top 10 most desirable professions these days (I believe it was number three)... of course, being a Nolte role, this professor had to be one with a million issues, a drinking problem, etc (nevermind that impossible hairline and them most manicured hands ever)....

anyway, I am not going to write a review on this movie, there are plenty ones to read about online (paging rotten tomatoes)... but I just want to comment a bit on its sheer violence... I also noticed this unbridled violence in District 9 a few months back (that is a great movie)...... and I wonder the amount of violence that was exhibited in two Mel Gibson movies that I boycotted, the Jesus one and the Mayan one..... is this a new trend in movie making?

it was a bit shocking for me to watch last night bodies burning and exploding, being realistically hit and torn up by out of control vehicles etc....... and this is after I saw the trailer and got really interested in watching it... so I guess then my question here is, how do we deal with (in my humble opinion) gratuitous images of violence? I am not a big fan of rating systems, as I view them as a socially-sanctioned form of censorship... in a post-9/11 world do we simply need to learn how to live with these representations?

click here for official movie site

Lisa Marie Thalhammer at The Butcher's Daughter gallery

because I had met the artist the night before at a dinner party, and harbored a massive hangover (for unrelated reasons), I walked up the steps to The Butcher's Daughter gallery with some trepidation and a bad taste in my mouth...

there is a well-known need to have some critical discussion and writing about the art scene in Detroit... we all talk about it and we all hope one day it will get better.... I've been thinking about starting a blog such as this for a very long time, taking matters into my own hands so to speak, but always felt (and still do) that I may not be the best person to do so, or that this might not be very good for my own art career, locally speaking.

what would happen if I had to write something negative about a friend? what would happen if the person being critiqued did not appreciate my comments? would this black-list me in some circles? or is art criticism something people like to complain about, but secretly love its absence? (the complaint being the binding factor in the community)...

and what is art criticism anyway? should I embrace the "I like.../ I don't like..." dictum that my students so frequently use, and that I abhor? how fully should I embrace my subjectivity? these questions are ones that usually surface in the teaching environment... so as any good teacher, it is time for me to become a student too and try to follow some of my own advice...

the addition of The Butcher's Daughter to the Detroit art community has also inspired me to undertake this venture. Monica Bowman has been very brave in actualizing her ambitions at a time when most like to focus on uncertainty and not be pro-active... the energy and freshness this space has brought to the scene is truly wonderful, and I hope the local art community will full-heartedly support it.... Monica, thank you for putting forth and expressing your vision....

a blog is a place of opinion, so I will express mine here... I will try to avoid any notions of taste (and if that is not possible, acknowledge it openly) and attempt to apply a description of my response and an analysis of my thoughts as a means of articulating my opinion.... so here we go!

this exhibition is made up of small-scale collage works (photographic images from magazines with painted elements), one large portrait painting, one mural and one stop-motion animation video piece...

one of my current gripes with art and the art experience is the notion of the presence of the art piece (its existence or lack thereof).... what I mean by that is the physical statement the work has once one approaches and experiences it.... more precisely, the way the aura of the work moves me... I feel that there are a lot of works being done these days that simply lack presence to me... for me that was one aspect that this exhibition did not possess as a whole at a first glance... perhaps the lack of glass in the presentation added to that reaction (I am partial to glossy surfaces, have always been), as well as the scale... the first impression for me was a bit flat...

there were some exquisite moments there though, and some portions of some pieces were very delightful to experience (also note how photogenic they are), such as the outline around the figures in the amber pieces by the reception desk/bar... the color palette and the paper texture worked well for me there... those pieces felt cohesive (no photos of these were taken, so make sure you go to the gallery to check them out)... but with some pieces the texture of the handmade paper were a bit too distracting and odd (specially when the palette was cooler)... the red piece with the arabesque patterns and the small collages around the border was one of my favorite pieces on the show (pictured below), perhaps because it warranted an approximation that fitted its scale better that in others... there was also a very nice dialogue between that piece and the video animation... more on that later...

some of the collage pieces, although interesting, gave me the impression that was too familiar and not as complicated as they could be... there is a whole generation of artists now dealing with this conglomerate look that implies motion (though of course this is nothing new or of only these times - this approach is as baroque as it is cybernetic)..... two artists that come to mind are Alexander Reyna and Sean Capone, whose work I curated into an exhibition at OUAG last March.... what differed their work from Lisa Marie's is their embracing of an over-the-top glossy and orgasmic effect in their final creations. I felt that Lisa Marie's were in a way too timid, too quiet, and even a bit too encrypted....

I also could not shake out the notion of many wall and table decorations I have seen in diners, tattoo parlors, pubs, and alternative restaurants all over the world, where this dismembered assemblage is on public display... it begged me to ask the question "what makes these different?" (aside from their context)... and then it hit me that perhaps this is precisely what this work is about... this is a commentary on that attempt for visual expression that is accessible to many (makers), prevalent in underground and mass media culture, but not completely assimilated.... a grunge or rebellious or queer scrap book of sorts.....

upon reading the statement that brings forth a biography as inspiration, the environments Lisa Marie has lived through begin to focus her work more for me... what was little evident to me was the feminine/feminist perspective in the work that was addressed in the statement (the decapitation and implied mutilation/mutation for me reinforced the critique it attempted to make, instead of posing a new solution or articulation of her position)... both Rosler and Ofili have dealt with similar imagery a while back, both with very different points of view and effect (though both related to this work via religion and gender politics), so what has been absorbed/learned from the(ir) past? is it possible to move into a post-feminist thought where the essence of being is as much celebrated as the struggle of being?

which brings me back to the video piece in the exhibition... it is here that I see a glimpse of things to come for her work.... what attracts me to this piece is similar to my experience in meeting the artist in person the previous night - shyness, humor, beauty and inner glow.... in this video I see where the work can go, in so many different directions (just as my experience of Lisa Marie changed, as we got to know each other more, and her intelligence, kindness and laughter emerged)... I imagine sounds and flashing lights, syncopated rhythm and tons of motion... and I hope this rubs off in the 2-D pieces as well..... I want to see an explosion of colors and rainbows and stars, ripping the edges of the paper, escaping its own boundaries... I also want to see some greater scale (the mural in the room makes me feel this way) and asymmetry (the burden of the rectangle no more)... I want to see, hear, taste and feel anger as much as joy.....

it could be interesting to see actual pieces of the truck stop too (furniture, backlit signs, menus, some 3-dimensionality) somehow incorporated into this endeavor... her personal history should be, somehow, articulated within the pieces to a greater extent (and not only in writing)... there is a million ways to do that (the scrap book mention also recalls the diary or journal), and if this is not an interest, then it is perhaps best left out of the artist statement... because it also reads as some type of justification for what we see, and the work does not need any face-saving... we don't need to always be defined by our parent's career choices ;-)

by the time I left the exhibition I was inspired by the art works I had seen/absorbed, my head filled with thoughts on their potential and possibilities... sometimes we see work that leaves us empty or too full, with nowhere to go to, and in a sense those pieces disappear thereafter from our minds.... sometimes pieces affect you (think of a wedgy or a hotel pillow, discomfort or Unheimlich) and leave you wanting more, like here... I really look forward to seeing more works from Lisa Marie in the near future... I'll be curious to see which road she decides to take next in her life and hope we get invited to ride along...

click here to see Thalhammer's work
click here to go to The Butcher's Daughter
click here to see Reyna's work
click here to see Capone's work

step 3

keeping with the idea of sharing this process with you guys, I decided to video-capture a portion of the painting process...

unfortunately youtube did not allow for a continuous clip that was longer than 10 minutes (the whole thing is eleven).... so it is divided into two sections.....



the actual first step of the process is the photographic image that I use as base for the drawing.... I am not sure what kind of audience this blog will have, so I am not going to be posting that here.... the drawing is obviously the second step, and the painting of the gold the third step... it is also the lengthiest of all....

I usually listen to music while working in my studio (unless I am editing audio), and I usually listen to one track only, on repeat.... I have been doing that since my undergrad days in Savannah... one particular song I remember using was erotica by Madonna for my final in life drawing class..... it was sort of an arrangement of three bodies in a room with a window, standing by a bed.... I meant to use them compositional devices, but now I can see that there were some erotic possibilities there too, though I was completely oblivious to it....



I believe said drawing is either gone for ever or in my sister's storage space in Texas... it was a bad drawing in regards to proportions, but I would kill to have it around right now to analyze the line quality..

anyway, I usually pick a random song of the moment and go with it (Bjork and Gus Gus come to mind, as well as Portishead)... so usually the song has nothing to do with the work itself in a conscious level..... though I have to say that this series has a celebratory feel to them, so who knows? I think it is more of an OCD thing than anything else....

here is how the first layer looks like, completed:



and here is a detail:



the final step will be the painting of the text with black paint... I will post an image of that as soon as I get to it, probably next week or the one after...

work in progress

I thought it would be cool to see my new piece as a work-in-progress here on the blog until I get to go to some galleries this weekend and focus on someone else's art....

so this is a new addition to the HTML/pageview-based works.... they all start as a pencil drawing, from a projected photograph that I took...

I initially used more than one sheet of paper because it was more manageable to work with them in my not-so-tall studio space.... but now I actually think that there are conceptual possibilities for the seam... I believe the edge of the paper enhances the materiality of the piece, which contrasts well with the immateriality of the digital image, projection, and website.....

the whole drawing measures 40 inches wide and 52 inches high... and I completed this earlier today.... the next step is to paint gold the areas surrounding the figure and eventually HTML code and tags somewhere within the piece.... the gold part will take a few days to complete, as at least 4 coats will be needed (more likely 6 to 8 coats), with a drying period in between each....

note the gold markings on the wall around it... this happened when I created the 7 pieces for the show ( about 22 pieces of paper measuring 26x40 inches each).... I would paint a set of four pieces of paper, move them to a table, and paint the next four, etc.... the effect is pretty cool, and I plan on keeping it when I move out of the studio and turn it into a media room....

more on this later =-)

it only makes sense...

... to start this art blog with my own work... if I will post and comment on other people's work (and let others comment on it as well), it is just fair that I place my work under the same spotlight....

to the left is an image from my most recent exhibition, gold code, which was exhibited last month at the org.contemporary gallery in Detroit, Michigan....

the title of this piece is heart.jpg plus the letters b and r between brackets (which ironically I cannot type here because they are automatically hidden as code when this web page is processed, see work for actual tag), which I intend on being read/decoded as " heart break"...

my goal with this piece, and with similar pieces in the exhibition that combine HTML code references with the representation of myself and the gold ground, is to converge distinct but related spheres of knowledge: personal experiences and ephemeral/ubiquitous technology. both of these intersect with the body. both of these complicate our understandings of site as knowledge and the knowledge of site.

my interests also lie in extrapolating notions of what photography was, is, can be and may become as a social and cultural phenomenon, in this piece and in many of the pieces in the exhibition... this is true to most of my works that are actually not photo- and video-based (an overall arch of my work, so to speak)....

at its inception the photograph was both an iconic and indexical sign of the world it depicted. with the advent of digital technologies its indexical nature has lost some of its prominence... the word itself implies that writing or drawing (graph) that is done with light (photo).... by actualizing these original terms (by using projected light as the base for iconic images, and using techniques that emphasize the handmade process, such as drawing and painting) I hope to rescue some of photography's native potential, and in the process display encrypted personal experiences...

welcome to art-sight!

this blog will display my visitations, opinions and wonderings about and around the art world (the partt I have access to)...

my intent is not to generate originality or notoriety, but to catalogue and share my experiences.

thanks for stopping by,

V.