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