2014 Faculty Biennial and Denisovan Exhibits

 

           The Rowe gallery’s set up subtly emphasized the the art pieces without taking away from the art itself. The pieces were laid out evenly with enough space for each piece to stand alone but feel like a continuous gallery. The room was well lit and each piece had it’s own light spotlight, both of which were white in color. The information about the art was clear with black writing.

 

            The art varied in style, medium, and size but held their own as a part of the gallery. The pieces weren’t necessarily of one movement, some being audio/visual and others being multi-dimensional. The ones that visually attracted me right away were the multi-medium pieces, I guess due to the unusual pairing of art forms that came together to make a single piece. The most surprising thing about the gallery was the wide range of art forms displayed.

 

            My first piece I chose was called Amuletic Spine by Mary Tuma. It is actually a tree branch with different things on it. The official material list is as follows: tree branch, flax wrap, amulets, prayers, words, whisperings, etc. The branch is shaped like the letter Y which breaks near the very top of the branch. It makes for a tall piece, which in a way is visually demanding despite it’s lack of girth.

 

            Almost the entire branch was covered with the flax wrap and string, which apart from the shape and size almost makes it unrecognizable as a tree branch. My favorite aesthetic part was the amount of pieces wrapped to the branch, vaguely described as amulets in the description. These parts ranged from animal pelts to various synthetic plastic pieces, giving different sections of the piece different textures. It had a string with hung from the left part of the Y that geld two different amulets, which was very neat. Although the piece had a structure of the branch, it wasn’t limited to the branch alone.

 

            I personally connected with the piece due to it reminding me of three missions trips I took to Jamaica. However I fell in love with the piece after reading the description. Tuma talked about using “old fabrics and found objects” only present in a certain environment to strictly capture that environment. Then she spoke of how the work represented loss and alludes to the passing of time where “a vacant space within a form once occupied.”

 

            This struck me from a past experience I had in Jamaica on a missions trip once. We were working on building a house nearing the end of the week so the house was close to being done. It had been the third time I had worked there in the five days we were working and I had been talking to the man who was the head of the household that we had been building the house for. During our lunch break, he took me and one of my friends to where he had been currently living. He and his family had been living under a combination of natural overhand of a cliff and various objects for shelter.

 

            They didn’t have much but some sheets, a place to store water, and an odd collection of tableware. They had an assortment of other objects and when I asked what they were, he said that they had been family pieces and/or dedications to family members that had passed. Amuletic Spine, much like those objects he had, represented something had existed in physical form but now only remains in a spiritual form. It is a physical representation of an emotional abundance or void.

 

            As far as a universal connection, I think it is a bit more earthy symbol very similar to the things we keep. I keep objects or pictures to remember people or relationships I’ve had. I think there’s something to be said about things we get attached to that have even deeper spiritual significance, art representing on of those. It touches on the value of having people in our lives and how those people effect us, even in their absence. It helps us come to a deeper understanding of who we are and how the people we treasure forge us in someway or another.

 

            The second piece I liked was Passegiatta by Maja Godlewska. This piece was actually five different pieces, primarily oil on canvas, that juxtaposed traditional art pieces with a more impressional piece. The four small, traditional pieces were hung above one larger piece which was at least three times the other works combined. The sheer size of the larger, more abstract piece visually overshadowed the smaller piece just in size.

 

            Aesthetically, the four smaller pieces were paintings of feet. Three of those focused on women’s feet in high heels, the other was a man’s right food and a dog. They are from different angles and are done very well technically.

 

            However the larger picture has different mediums. It looked like a a half-pink half-grey canvas with a hole in it, the edges of which where heavy and colored silver and gold. Inside the hole was something that looked vaguely like a hand on the left side and something that looked vaguely like a person on the right. There are heavy brush strokes that create a circle and a focus point on the larger piece. It also has a heat transfer on the right side of the larger piece. It is more detailed which contrasts the larger strokes and colors. The best thing about the heat transfer is there are visible body limbs on the edges of the mass of squiggles.

 

            My favorite aesthetic part is the contrast of the very definite, detailed smaller pictures above the much larger abstract and confusing picture. This also holds my personal connection to the piece. I think there is many ways to interpret this piece, as most art, but I don’t think the artist had a specific interpretation, rather the lack of direction was it’s own purpose. 

 

            The title plays an important part in the piece I think. The title, Passegiatta, means to walk or stroll in Italian. This plays into the smaller pictures as something incredibly universal. However the people in the pictures seemed to be very dressed up, high heels, work heels, and a man in dress shoes and slacks. All of these portraying a definite idea that the people in the painting are presenting. However in contrast to the larger abstract piece, the scribbles that represent a man seem to say we don’t really have a concrete concept of who we really are, despite how we represent ourselves.

 

            In a way it almost begs the idea that there needs to be constant soul-searching to figure out who one really is, instead of creating a image that becomes who we are.

 

            As with most artistic interpretations, much of my responses to the pieces probably have something to do with what is going on with my life. Honestly I enjoyed most of the Rowe’s Gallery, I always like getting to see local art. Those two pieces spoke to me, as did another, but I like the deeper meanings these two had.