Exercising Emotional Stimulus

Yayoi Kusama.
Cornelia Parker.
Kait Rhodes
Ernesto Neto
Rachael Wong Red Effect
Rachael Wong Blue Affect

Amanda Dumas

Jillian D'Abramo

Excavating the Arts of Alfred

Show Curation

Exercising Emotional Stimulus

In·stinct (ĭn'stĭngkt') n. An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli. A powerful motivation or impulse. (The American Heritage, 2004) Instinct and emotions are one of the most basic tools that living beings are born and equipped with. Instincts and emotions are separate, yet they influence each other. Instincts are natural urges and feelings that can not be controlled. In our society many people try to suppress and control their natural urges and feelings. Not enough people in our society embrace their emotional stimulus and let their feelings and urges take over. No one is saying that every instinct and urge should be put into action, but there are healthy ways people can let their emotions, instincts and feelings take over.

One way to exercise emotional stimulus is through art, the creation or action of making art, or the viewing and consumption of art. The emotional stimulus of making art could be to evoke emotion, or to rid oneself of emotion or a natural instinct, whether it is a positive or negative emotion or instinct. The artists chosen for the exhibition “Exercising Emotional Stimulus” each either use the act of making work or the end product of their work as a way of releasing or embracing their emotions and natural instincts. The intention is to not just evoke feeling and emotions, it is to psychologically immerse oneself into the work through physical and emotional senses.

Yayoi Kusama's work has been grouped with such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali because her work at the time was experimental and out of the ordinary. Kusama is an artist of many trades and styles. She is a painter as well as a 3-D artist in many mediums. Kusama came to the United States, and settled in New York City sometime before the 1960's where she had an easier time showing work then in Japan. Her work has been compared to New York artists of her time and describe as avant-grade.(Chadwick, 1998, 48-49) Kusama does not prefer labels and has claimed to paint “”only as I wished“” and to ””rely on my own interior imagination” (Hoptman 2000, 10)

Throughout her life Yayoi Kusama suffered from visual hallucinations in which she expresses and uses in her work. “”One day I was looking at the red flower patterns of the tablecloth on the table, and when I looked up I saw the same pattern covering the ceiling, the windows and the walls, and finally all over the room, my body and the universe. I feel I had begun to self-obliterate, to revolve in the infinity of endless time and the absoluteness of space, and be reduced to nothingness. “”(Chadwick 1998, 159-60) Kusama uses her hallucinations and her feelings of self-obliteration in her work. Due to her illness, her natural instincts and urges push her towards repetition and pattern in her work.

In her work in 1998 Dots of Obsession, the use of inflatable vinyl in both pieces (one in white and red, the other in yellow and black.) Covering the ceilings and walls, and the matching ameba-like forms with dots, are repeated with mirrors when the space is entered by the viewer. The red room covered in white dots is mirrored on the walls putting the viewer in the piece itself. The yellow piece has black dots covering the space in a long rectangular room with the matching vinyl on the walls instead of a mirror. Kusama is also standing in the piece in a matching dress with matching heels and hat. (Hoptman 2000, 126-127)Kusama is putting herself into her work physically, emotionally and mentally. “”Become one with eternity. Obliterate your personality. Become a part of your environment. Forget yourself.”” (Hoptman 2000, 124)

“”The fact is that we can't escape our own body. Thats all we have.””- Ernesto Neto. (Clausen, 2002, 47) Ernesto Neto creates a space where objects engage all senses. Soft and touchable forms can be jumped on explored though. The sculptures are made to feel “larger then life” and the viewer can interact with the sculpture by touch, sight, sound and smell. Ernseto is known for his aromatic substances that are sometimes filled inside the sculptures for a more sensual experience. Nato wants to create“”...a place of sensations”” (Clausen, 2002, 47) The collection in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen uses soft pinkand blue nylon. The interaction is mostly physical between the viewer and the art. Neto wants the interaction to consume people in every aspect. To have the viewer rely on their instincs and primal senses, Nato wants not to “”escape our own body”” but to embrace our body by letting your senses consume you.

Amanda Dumas, Pink Feeling #333 takes over the gallery space. At first glance the piece is pleasing to the eye, soft white and pink. It gives the viewer a false sense of comfort. Upon closer view, the soft white material is identified as pantyhose, and the pink objects hanging on the inside are not to be identified. The pink objects seem to have feelers or limbs, which are trapped inside the bottom of the long, stretched pantyhose. Imagine people walking around the gallery to observe the repetitive "feelers" which are trapped inside the pantyhose, one would assume that the viewer could feel somewhat uneasy. Dumas carefully plays with the viewers emotions by finding the fine line between her soft material and colors, and the up close view of a trapped eerie feeling.

Dumas uses the color pink for the viewer to identify with. Dumas believes that color pink can evoke strong feelings from the viewer, either comforting or “revolting.” Dumas claims that the she can identify well with the color pink, as a female and feels as though it can be a color loaded with controversy or comfort. (Dumas 2003) Either feeling, controversy or comfort will evoke instincts and emotions from the viewer that are important in understand the work. The piece is there to engage the viewer in the space and to overcome the viewer with their natural emotions.

Cornelia Parker manages to also convey the feeling of a surreal comfort to her viewer from a distant look in her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View. The lighting of her piece gives it a warming glow in which would draw the viewer closer. Again, upon closer inspection the viewer might feel the need to take a step back. Looking into Parkers piece, there is a sense of violence or angst, as if somebody's world, or a room has been disassembled or exploded. Parker uses the pieces of a room, or in this case a shed, for mapping. Parker uses a shed that the British School of Ammunition had controlled an explosion for her. (Ferguson 2000, 22) Her interest in dimension and space is far beyond the pieces she had created. The use of materials decontextualized to change the history and the iconic image relates to the artists shown. (Furguson 2000, 45-46) Parker not only reconstructs a space that had once existed, she also constructs a place that does not exist in the physical sense, a place where the viewer can go mentally and emotionally a place where “the cycle of inhaling,exhaling, forgetting,remembering, living, and dying carries on.” (Tronzo, 2009, 94)

Rachel Wong and her pieces The Red Effect and The Blue Affect. Wong uses playful forms and playful colors against the gallery wall to invite the viewer in. The colors which draw you in, help the viewer ignore the fact that the material is glass and anchored to the wall. The forms seem playful and soft yet can not be tossed or bounced around. The colors are ones which “effect” or in this case “affect” the emotions and natural instincts of the viewer. The pieces are very pleasing to the eye. The artist is also toying with the idea of communication with the viewer, the objects seem to be having a conversation with themselves and the wall in which they are morphing into and out of. The forms are round and have soft contours and ridges. Upon closer view in The Blue Affect you can see through some spots of some of the white objects that have a coating of color beneath the surface. These forms have layers of color that can not always be seen. The colors beneath the white coordinate with the blue and red paint. Rachel Wong lets her instincts and emotions run free when creating her work and she lets “Imagination, memory, and emotion take hold.” (Wong 2009)

Kait Rhoads, an MFA Graduate of Alfred University stimulates emotion and uses her personal instincts while creating her work. In Her slide talk presentation Rhoads discussed her affinity for the water and organic forms. Growing up on the water literally, on a house boat and always living near the water Rhoads instincts are to make work that symbolizes things such as seaweed and seaweed forms. Not all of her work consists of these forms and ideas of water and sea-forms.(Rhoads 2009)

Similar to Kusama, yet not as extreme, Rhoads has an instinctual desire for repetitiveness. She becomes overwhelmed and almost consumed with the shape of circular forms such as the murrini rings which in her case are hallow. Rhoads spends an enormous amount of time obsessively sorting by shape color and size of murrini. Then the murrini can be assembled into her work, where she spends countless hours systematically weaving them together.(Rhoads 2009)

Along with pattern, Kait Rhoads piece Sideweed, uses diverse material to sculpt out of. The use of the murrini (the hallow rings of glass and color) and copper wire, which is systemically weaved through the glass is a repetitive controlled chaos. The murrini is not weaved flat, it is weaved in an organic form resembling seaweed. The ring like objects, although organic in shape is controlled and organized in pattern. The piece is hung by protruding away from the wall seeming not connected in theory. The connection of the pieceon the wall can not be seen from the front view nor is it important to see the connection of this piece to the wall, unlike Wong's work.

These artists are very diverse yet there are many connections between. All the artists from Yayoi Kusama, Rachel Wong, Amanda Dumas, Ernesto Neto to Cornelia Parker have running themes pop up through their work. A play between chaos and order, successful use of gallery space. A play of materials and color, and feelings, intuition, emotions and instincts are strongly put out and absorbed by the viewer.

Through their ironic use of materials, and sleek display Wong and Rhoads pieces work well together. Controlled chaos is shown in their shapes and patterns and methods of a clean piece. The communication that Wong and Rhoads send out to their viewer is precise. Wong and Rhoads objects transmit the concept of play and communication through their use of working with the gallery wall as a space to connect or protrude from.

Dumas and Neto use methods of display in a similar manner to Cornelia Parker in her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded view. Dumas and Neto compared to Parker have very different choices in materials and colors, Dumas and Neto with soft materials and soft colors, and Parker with hard rigid found objects and wood, yet the construction of their pieces and the feelings derived are similar. Dumas, with her sewn together pantyhose has created what seems to be a web, where the pink "feelers" have fallen and become trapped. Neto has utilized every sensation counting on sight, emotions, touch and smell which makes the viewer feel as thought hey have entered their own world. Parker has constructed her piece in such a way that her found objects are protected behind the pieces of her jagged wood, which seems to be a sort of controlled chaos. The choices in material for both pieces may seem ironic. The pantyhose used my Dumas, nylon also used by Neto and the found objects used by Parker have lost their identity or purpose. Dumas has deconstructed, then reconstructed (by sewing) the pantyhose to fit her web like structure at the top of her piece, losing their identity and purpose. Neto has stuffed and created a large bed-like forms which makes no reference to the material other then for its sensation. Parker has exploded domestic household objects and used them in the construction of her piece, in which they have also lost their purpose and are used as an idea or symbol of what they once were.

Sometimes as art critics or viewers we are very quick to slap categories on to someone else's work. Words such as functional or non functional can be meaningless and categorizing work in such a manner can create a boring exhibit. Many artists try not to categorize themselves in such a way that restricts them. As an artist Yayoi Kusama feels very strong about not being categorized and speaks out about not enjoying labels. (Hoptman 2000, 10)

In creating the exhibition Exercising Emotional Stimulus, the work to be shown will be work that creates a space for the viewer to become engaged and overcome either physically, emotionally and or mentally. The work may be viewed alone or with a crowd depending on each artist. The work that may be viewed alone (if chosen by the viewer) is the work by Yayoi Kusama, Amanda Dumas, Ernesto Neto and Cornelia Parker. These works will have their own rooms which extend off the main gallery. A small open doorway will be the only entry to each room in which security will stand allowing viewers in one at a time unless asked otherwise. The works by Ernesto Neto and Yayoi Kusama are interactive in the sense that they may be handled and touched.

In the entry way to the gallery the first view os a wall blocking the exhibition. The wall will have simple black text stating the exhibition's purpose:

In·stinct (ĭn'stĭngkt') n. An inborn pattern of behavior that is characteristic of a species and is often a response to specific environmental stimuli. A powerful motivation or impulse. Instinct and emotions are one of the most basic tools that living beings are born equipped with. The artists chosen for the exhibition “Exercising Emotional Stimulus” each either use the act of making work or the end product of their work as a way of releasing or embracing their emotions and natural instincts.

Each work will be labeled by artists name,title of work, year, and materials used in small vinyl print on the gallery walls. Above the works by Ernesto Neto and Yayoi Kusama, vinyl lettering will inform the viewer that they may interact with the work physically as well. Above the artists names and titles a mini biography will also be put in vinyl lettering.

Object Check List:

Yayoi Kusama:

• Vinyl for floor wall and ceiling in red with white polka-dots.

• Vinyl red and white ameba like objects to match and fit into the space.

Ernesto Neto:

• Large pink nylon shaped bed.

• Blue nylon stuffing for inside the bed shape.

• Blue floor to ceiling covering with tube-like structures hanging.

• Calming herbs to put inside pink pillow like forms that hang from the blue tube like structures for the aroma.

Rachael Wong:

• Red paint

• Blue paint

• White objects with blue and red windows, for blue wall

• Red objects for red wall

Kait Rhodes:

• Sideweed sculptue with steel wall attachment

Cornelia Parker

• all wood fragments

• all metal fragments

• all objects identifiiable and fragmented

• wire to hang objects

• single light bulb for middle of sculpture.

Amanda Dumas

• pink painted porcelain “feelers”

• sewn together pantyhose

Works cited

1. Chadwick, Whitney . Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-Representation. London: The Mit Press, 1998.

2. Clausen, Barbara, and Carin Kuini. Thin Skin: The Fickle Nature of Bubbles, Spheres, and Inflatable Structures. New York: Independent Curators International, New York, 2002. ]

3. Dumas Amanda, Master’s thesis, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2003.

4. Ferguson, Bruce, Jessica Morgon, and Cornelia Parker. Cornelia Parker. Second Edition ed. Boston MA: Ica Boston, 2000.

5. Hoptman, Laura. Yayoi Kusama (Contemporary Artists). London: Phaidon Press, 2000.

6. Instinct. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/instinct (accessed: December 01, 2009).

7. Karia, Bhupendra. Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective . New York, New York: Center for International Contemporary Arts, 1989.

8. Rhodes, Kait. Slide talk and presentation. Binns Merrial Hall. Alfred, NY. October 8, 2009

9. Tronzo, William. The Fragment: An Incomplete History. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2009.

10. Wong, Rachael . "Rachael Wong | Artist Statement." Rachael Wong | Welcome to Rachael Wong's Artworks. http://rachaelwong.ca/artist_statement.php#lock (accessed November 6, 2009 and December 7, 2009).

Life-Size Exhibition Statement, Floor Plan, and Flow Plan

This exhibition acts as a vehicle to help transport the viewer to another world. Whether the viewer journeys to the sugary fields of Gerit Grimm’s Wonderland or to the heavens to browse through Peter Morgan’s Sky Mall Exclusives, he loses sight of the white gallery walls. The scale of the work aids in the believability of these other worlds. The viewer can gain the opportunity to play midway games with Grimm’s characters from Carnival. He can have the power to command the army of figurines in Julie Moon’s Headspace, or the viewer has the option to become the hero of a video game in Joseph Page’s Flow Chart. Through humor and irony as well, the viewer can relax and indulge in these imaginative works. It is imagination where these works stem from.

Life-Size Floor Plan

Life-Size Floor Plan with Flow Plan

Life-Size Bibliography

Bibliography

Ashton, Dore. The Unknown Shore: A View of Contemporary Art. Canada: Little, Brown & Company (Canada) Limited. 1962. Print

Cheetham, Mark A. "Postmodernism in Recent Canadian Art: Ironies of Memory." Double Talking: Essays on Verbal and Visual Ironies in Canadian Contemporary Art and Literature. Ed. Linda Hutcheon. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press, 1992. pg. 54 -73. Print.

Grimm, Gerit. Master's thesis, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2004.

Hutcheon, Linda. Double Talking: Essays on Verbal and Visual Ironies in Canadian Contemporary Art and Literature. ECW Press, 1992. Print.

Morgan, Peter. Master's thesis, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2005.

Page, Joseph. Master's thesis, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, 2008.

Wick Reaves, Wendy. “The Art in Humor, the Humor in Art.” American Art 04 Oct. 2009: 2-9. Print.

Reference Photos

Robert Arneson, Brick Bang 1976

Gerit Grimm, In The Theatre 2003

Tryiad of King Mycerinus, Cold Cast Black Granite

Artists' Artwork

Gerit Grimm, Wonderland

Peter Morgan, Sky Mall Exclusives

Peter Morgan, Sky Mall Exclusives (detail)

Peter Morgan, Sky Mall Exclusives (detail)

Peter Morgan, Doggie Steps

Gerit Grimm, Carnival 2006

Gerit Grimm, Carnival (detail) 2006

Julie Moon, Headspace

Julie Moon, Headspace (detail)

Julie Moon, Untitled

Joseph Page, Flow Chart 2009

Life-Size

Although it is rarely said, art is to be taken seriously. Political cartoons in the local newspapers are disregarded as “serious” works of art, while comic books are viewed solely as entertainment. Far and few artists have been able to successfully incorporate humor into their work and have been remembered for it. Sure, a good chuckle when visiting the gallery is appreciated, but does it compare to a highly technical, awe-inspiring piece? While researching the Alfred University MFA graduates, I found four candidates who understand the importance of art and humor. Because each of these artists utilizes a recognizable form, whether it is a reference to a dated video game or airplane magazines, the viewer is able to relate to the piece with a smile.
Humorous art is regarded as rather difficult to discuss. The viewers and critics struggle with what to make of pieces poking fun at politics, society, and the habits of people. Is the work naïve? Is it to be seen as just funny or is there an underlying message waiting to be deciphered? Is humor in art just a distraction from real life situations?
These are questions writer, Wendy Wick Reaves has dealt with. She believes that “humor works as a mode of expression, a cultural product, and a serious topic for discussion, despite its levity” (Reaves 2). She expresses that humor is seen as a resource, an attention-grabber. Artists utilize humor to attract viewers to their work. Reaves believes that humor “diverts [the viewer] from subtler messages, and often from a more complex interaction with the artwork” (2). Humor is then to be used appropriately. If the artist does not comprehend the weight of the humor within the art, the underlying message can be completely overlooked, and the work is regarded as a one-note laugh. The viewer smirks and moves on.
A skilled artist however, should know how to cleverly combine satire with art to immediately grasp the viewer’s attention and hold it. Reaves explains that “comic art forms often work on a subconscious level because [the viewers] don’t necessarily engage with them intellectually.” (2). Humor is the first experience the viewer acquires from the work. Because of the initial impact, the viewer tends to “absorb” first before observing underlying messages (2). Once the work grabs the viewer’s attention with humor, the audience can then unpack the meaning of the piece. Humorous art “can reveal not only clever manipulations, but also layered meanings and aesthetic sophistication that warrant [the viewers’] attention” (Reaves 2)
Even Reaves acknowledges that “the arbiters of the fine art world - dealers, critics, and art historians - seldom want to grapple with humor” (4). Humor is unnoticed because the viewer “wants to take art seriously, especially when lawmakers and the public questions its value” (4). Does humor have a place in art then? When combined with social cues, references to consumption, technology, and politics, humor can be viewed as a tool rather than something unnecessary and ridiculous. Reaves agrees that humor “must be added to the mix of cultural references that [the viewers] use to contextualize art” (4). It is one of the only ways to utilize humor effectively.
A more refined aspect of humor, which most artists seek to achieve in their work, is the utilization of irony. Subtlety through irony is difficult to grasp and to achieve. Because of this obstacle, artists resort to obvious play in scale, distracting color, or any apparent trick for the viewer to stay with their work for seconds more. A balance of thought and playfulness requires skill. Artists Gerit Grimm, Peter Morgan, Joseph Page, and Julie Moon all experiment with ideas of form, scale, gender issues, and irony through their work. Whether incorporating recognizable subjects like airplane magazines or familiar atmospheres like a boisterous carnival, each of these artists are also quietly slipping another suggestion in to the subconscious.
While form, scale, and subject matter are all formalized early in the making of the work, it is what the piece is projecting that announces itself late. Unfortunately, the message the work is emitting is the important factor. When an artist pushes an idea too much, the piece becomes too accessible. If an idea is not formulized enough, however, the message is lost and the presented work is perceived as unsuccessful or unfinished. Each of the listed artists utilizes irony in their form, their scale shifts, and their subject matter.
The playfulness and sexuality in the work that Gerit Grimm is known for stems from her imagination and “the childishness of [her] thoughts” (Grimm 2). Growing up in Germany, she had an idealized notion of American culture. While her homeland was in constant change, the Berlin Wall falling for example, she perceived America as “aged and exotic” (Grimm 6). After witnessing Robert Arneson’s work during a gallery visit, she decided to travel to States. She noticed the “casual approach American ceramists… took when working with clay” (2). While enduring the formal education of German ceramic art, Grimm wanted to experiment with the “humorous, sassy and mischief loaded stories” that American culture had to offer. She also wanted to “[ignore] aesthetic rules and create… artwork that functioned more unreservedly in space” (2). The relocation of her studies brought about a significant change in her work.
Gerit Grimm addresses the quirky behavior of people in social settings. In her MFA thesis report, Grimm makes humorous observations about the interaction of people. Depending on the atmosphere, people act differently. At the theatre, “the women [wear] beautiful ensembles, [have] nicely done hair, [and wear] the highest of heels and flash jewelry” (Grimm 3). They venture to the theatre not only to watch the show, but to also be watched themselves. There is a doubling in the idea of viewing and wanting to be viewed.
Irony is known for its duality, its multiple functions. In the book, Double Talking: Essays on Verbal and Visual Ironies in Canadian Contemporary Art irony is described as “saying one thing and meaning another… a double mode of address” (Hutcheon 13). Robert Wien’s The Rip is a piece that can be easily described by this doubleness. Wien’s initial intention was to re-create a theatre setting from his childhood. He remembers a Western film being projected on the screen with a tear. The native Canadians in the theatre were so disgruntled by the portrayal of the natives that they began to throw things at the screen. The tear grew, ripping the screen in half. In this instance, the rip was significant in a new way. The rip became a “spatial metaphor for the growing political activism of native Canadians, which ‘became impossible to ignore’” (Cheetham 59). The drastic ripping of the screen becomes distracting to the film, and the issue the natives have becomes more noticeable. The artist “has presented the potential for individual memories to intersect with social concerns” (61).
Grimm addresses the duality of irony, like Robert Wien’s, through social settings like movie theatres and carnivals. The presentation of such situations allows the viewer to become part of the crowded audience on velvety, red seats, or to want to push their way through the busy midway. Grimm’s Downtown Street: Movie Theater portrays several social settings. The innards of the movie theater are left out on display for viewers to come and inspect the people it holds. Each flat, ceramic figure gazes out at the audience when the theater doors are opened. This raises the question of who is viewing who. Because the ceramic pieces are about life size, and because the social settings are all too familiar, the viewer falls in to the ironic trap of participating. Questions like, “Do I really pay ten dollars to sit in a crowded movie theater to watch a generic romantic comedy,” rise in the viewer’s thoughts. The portrayal of human behavior in a gallery setting can actually be pretty revealing. Although Grimm’s subjects are not politically charged like Robert Wien’s art, both artists illuminate on elements of human tendencies and their flaws.
It is not Grimm’s Downtown Street that makes its appearance in my exhibition however. It is her piece, Wonderland that the viewer first encounters. To participate in this piece, the viewer is required to duck under the box that contains this other world. In the center of the bottom of the work, there is a hole where the viewer is expected to go through. Gripped with fear, the viewer holds their breath and ventures through to this alternate environment. The viewer is then suddenly immersed in a colorful, exotic place. Compared to the figures within the surroundings, the viewer is gigantic and purely a visitor to this alternate setting. There is no distance between the viewer and the work; the work automatically becomes less intimidating. The arrangement seems to encourage an investigation on the viewer’s part, of the surroundings. It is at this point that the viewer can digest the candy-colored grasses, the bubbling blue mountains, and the friendly natives in their natural state. Mirrors line the walls of the enclosure, creating the illusion of an expansive landscape. Dore Ashton explains in the book, The Unknown Shore: A View of Contemporary Art, that irony is the “ultimate detachment, a philosophical and psychological distance which precludes didactism or moralizing” (Ashton 178). In other words, irony is what prevents boredom in art. Grimm, as well as the other three artists in the exhibition, utilizes art as a vehicle to transport the viewer to mystical settings. These settings are unlikely to be seen in a gallery setting; they each obtain a dream-like quality. These transcending environments are unattached to the gallery and allow the viewer to relax and imagine themselves in these new, magical settings.
After endlessly waiting in line to have a chance to peek into Grimm’s Wonderland, the viewer notices Peter Morgan’s Sky Mall Exclusives. The objects within the sky mall are larger than life size, forcing their importance on the viewer. The viewer’s relation to this piece is again participatory. Items found in airplane magazines are on display, waiting to be purchased. Delectable items like elk salami or doggie steps are temptingly placed on fluffy clouds. The viewer is compelled to window shop while stepping around the sales items. Morgan emphasizes the ridiculousness of actual items found in magazines. It is ironic that these items do exist. They are absurd enough to exist in Morgan’s fictional sky mall. Morgan describes his playfully critical work as “idealized and faux” (Morgan 9). By placing these items in a created reality, he hopes the viewers can “mentally put themselves in this place, and understand it as an actual experience rather than a representation of one” (9).
As the viewer meanders through Sky Mall Exclusives, Doggie Steps is the last piece to be approached. Directionally, it is faced towards the gallery’s corner, where Grimm’s Carnival resides. The viewer’s gaze is curious to locate what the arthritic dog is staring at. Turning, the viewer journeys on to Grimm’s second piece of the exhibition.
Gerit Grimm’s Carnival consists of columns of flat depictions of people enjoying a day at the carnival. In contrast to Grimm’s Wonderland, the figures in Carnival are now towering over the viewer. The viewer is limited to only certain views of each column; the columns are displayed on a pedestal, restraining the viewer to walk around the cluster as a whole. Each column vaguely recalls the guidelines of the Egyptians Canon of Proportions. As the viewer moves around the piece, the figures drastically change point-of-view; each side of the column containing a different side of the character. Instead of the figure ebbing over the sharp edges of the columns, another side of the character is presented wholly instead. Like Grimm’s Downtown Street: Movie Theater, Carnival also immerses the viewer into an alternate environment. This time, the setting is familiar; the carnival is a place of wonder and disgust. While reviewing this work, the viewer asks himself, “Was spending all that money to win a carnival prize worth this little souvenir?” Again, Grimm is asking the viewer to question the celebration of the carnival setting. Can the viewer relate to the cheesy setting, the entertainers, and the collapsible park rides?
At this point, the viewer has wandered through half of the exhibit. He has been the titan in Grimm’s Wonderland, experienced a giant’s shopping district in Morgan’s Sky Mall Exclusives, and has battled the towering carnies in Grimm’s Carnival. The separate character columns lead the viewer over to Julie Moon’s Headspace. Out of all the pieces the viewer has met so far, Moon’s is the first to incorporate both overbearing size and the delicate comfort of figurines. Directionally, the piece is facing the left wall of the gallery. The path of the viewer is dictated solely by the facings of each piece. Each figure stands stoically, referencing a serviceman’s formation. Their proud configuration is concrete; the viewer must weave around the sculpture to continue through the exhibition. As he passes, the viewer notices that each figure is eerily headless. Moon’s pieces control the backspace of the gallery, setting a dark, fantastical scenario. The floating, organic shapes clutter the backspace, making it feel tight and claustrophobic. Although Moon’s pieces do not physically create an atmosphere, they demand attention and stand their ground.
The second piece of Moon’s the viewer encounters is Untitled. The sculptural wall piece is anamorphous. The only recognizable form stems out from the organic shapes. It is a woman’s curving arm, emphatically pointing in a direction. This piece is mounted on the back wall, near the right corner. It is a visual clue for the viewer to continue forward through the gallery. It is ironic that the piece is so literal. It does not contain the subtlety of the placement of Doggie Steps, but it still acts as a guide for the viewer. Moon’s flowery graphics on both Headspace and Untitled slightly retract the eerie feeling her work emits. The graphics damage the severity of each piece, but also add a dimension of humor.
The last piece the viewer exhaustingly experiences is Joe Page’s Flow Chart. Like Grimm and Morgan, Page creates a whole new reality for the viewer. This installation acts as a smooth transition between the imaginary worlds and exiting the gallery. Page utilizes the stark, white gallery walls within his Flow Chart. The colored graphics on the wall act cohesively with the walls. This piece is also very directional. Because it so dependent on the wall, the viewer is forced to follow the curving lines and bending backgrounds along, while also taking in the installed wall pieces as well.
Flow Chart is purposely limited to certain color and form. Page empathizes with early video game designers who had to work with “extremely limited color pallet and an inability to render recognizable shapes” (Page 1). Page takes this constraint and follows its strict rules; he only displays certain color, shape, and a limited direction in his piece. His simplicity of color and form in his colored wall elements allow a “contextual way to change the character of the ceramic pieces near them” (4). The environments he creates “serve as a vehicle for the creation, transformation, and travels of the bubbles” (4). The doubling of irony occurs here as well. There is a transformation of the “bubble” within Page’s piece, as well as the modification of the gallery setting to allude to a magical world.
The exhibition toys with themes of scale and irony. There is an immeasurable weight to what the work is saying. Irony is a heavy theme that runs thick through all of the work. The size of the irony portrayed in each piece depends on the artist’s employment of subtlety. Scale is the other main theme within this exhibition. The experience of the work is based on the comparison of the work’s size to the viewer’s stature. Each artist experiments with size and is interested in the viewer’s relationship to that piece. Because this exhibition relies so heavily on size, both metaphorically and physically, it is called “Life-Size.”

Painterly Ceramics

According to Merriam-Webster, painterly describes something as: 1. Relating to or typical of a painter or 2. Suggestive or characteristic of a painting or the art of painting marked by openness of form which is not linear and in which sharp outlines are lacking. Painters enjoy this openness and freedom in their material. However, this is a freedom that is not limited to paint. The word painterly describes attributes as related to this sense of gestural expression. Thought this show the painterly aesthetics’ relevance to ceramic art will be examined.

Linda Sorman, a 2003 Alfred MFA graduate in ceramics, is a ceramic sculptor. Sormin uses wheel-throwing, slab-building, press molding, and pinching to describe a conversation that becomes the “’narration’ of (her)... abstraction.” In both thought and practice she looks to eloquently disturb known ideas about the ceramic material and the processes used in creating ceramic art. Again both physically and conceptually, the work questions enclosure, disclosure, porosity and density, as well as the relationships between mass and weigh, strength and construction, balance and movement, and construction and collapse. She accomplishes this by burrowing and colonizing forms, taken from her narration, within eachother while involving chance, desire, risk, failure, and surprise. She does not hesitate to attach wet coils to dry ones or even build wet off fired structures. Getting the clay to behave in new ways by allowing it to misbehave again contradicts preconception of the ceramic material. Sormin is excited and intrigued by “mistakes” which encourages her exploration of the material by using techniques known not to work. By actively questioning the ceramic material she gains a greater understanding of what clay can or will do and mean. She is motivated by the drama of the material and her continued questioning of ceramics is an evident strength in the precarious space where her work excises. (Sormin 2003)

In Sormin’s “Vernalia”(2003) the element of touch is very evident. It is architecturally constructed with linear units that form a lattices structure. Through the handling of material the linear units loose their sharpness resulting in a painterly object reminiscent of layered brush strokes instead of a constructed feeling like a building structure or skeleton. Loose craftsmanship in this sculpture, as well as attraction to material and its reaction to the hand are the result of the contradictions Sormin is inspired by. Not only is she questioning ceramic construction though her process but she is creating a feeling of dilapidated construction by suggesting previous stability whileusing a system in a painterly and gesturally free way. A relation between interior and exterior is introduced through the impaired view of the inside as well as by its pores outside. The suggestion, but ultimate lack of geometric form as well as volume of negative space and its interruption by loosely linear forms are direct relations to the definition of painterly. The negative space provides openness and although the structure suggests linear form, in the end what could be called an outline blurs the space where the piece starts and stops instead of framing it. A general feeling of decompostion, relic, and ruin emanate from the piece. The piece is 40” tall and sits on a pedestal that is angled so the corner is facing the viewer. The size and it’s height form the floor, as well as the spot lighting that cast shadow around the piece draw you in. These elements all attribute to the darkness, foreboding, dangerous, and intimidating result of the presentation.

In relation to painting Sormin’s work is consistent with some of the moves made by Francis Bacon. Bacon’s pictorial concerns and expressive techniques are eccentric in comparison to those of his contemporary modern painters just as Sormin works in a process that generally conflicts with the ideas and “rules” of the ceramic material. Consistent with Sormin’s dealings with construction through destruction, as Bacon progressed though his career he destroyed all of his early work. Bacon is known for his extreme anatomical and physiognomic distortions as principles of his expression. His violent recklessness in physicality, iconographic, and formal allusions are analogues Sormin’s handling of ceramic. Finally, Bacon’s use of a space frame device in his caged animals and enclosed figures relate to the encased objects in Sormin’s lattices. (Fuller 1985)

Lee Somers, a 2006 Alfred MFA graduate, is also a ceramic sculptor. Through travel, Somers has been interested in broadening connections to and senses of space and history. Using these connections he has rooted himself in three places: His home, the landscape and American Indian ruins in the American Southwest, Alfred, NY, the core of his academic and cultural education, and China, where he has built a relationship with the global ceramic community. In finding connection to these places as well as between them Somers discovered a relationships between architecture, landscape, and culture. In order to achieve consistency while discussing these relationships he defines these terms; architecture as the constructions of man, landscape as the depiction of natural scenes and the aesthetic approach to the outdoors, weather, and the shifting of light (through this definition he aligns himself with some painterly vernacular consistent through the execution of his work), and culture as customs, arts, and social interaction as achievements of human intellect in a social group. With these definitions he explores how these three factors rely on each other and blend together. Architecture is a representation of culture and is impressed upon by landscape. Architecture can become landscape through ruin. “Architecture and landscape often find their most dramatic expression in decay, ruin, and destruction.” Both looking at ruin, this conversation relates to Linda Sormin’s thoughts and processes. Perhaps ceramic sculpture that aligns itself with the painterly follows a trend of speaking to dilapidation, as opposed to rigid construction. Ruins tend to portray the morality of culture and the frailty of the human condition. By defining the three influential surroundings by their ruins and rubble Somers found a connection in clay. From the ceramics left over by the American Indians at Mesa Verda where he grew up to the shards found during excavation of buildings constructed on top of kiln sights in Jingdezhen, China and from the dumpsters of Harder Hall in Alfred ceramic shards became trail markers in his life.

In making Somers attempts to weave matrixes of material creating relationships that he hopes in the end transcend the materials used. This is similar to the conversations Sormin creates by working material in contradicting manners. Like Sormin and relevant to a painterly hand Somers is interested in the balances between structure and chaos, symmetry and disorder, and repetition and variety. Somers addresses these relationships as well as the relationship previously discussed between architecture and landscape by mixing sculpture and video in instillation. He builds sketches or “unfinished object” to investigate pattern and structure. Then using both built and found ceramic objects arranges “action paintings”. These are composite arrangements without any predetermined form. Somers sidelines the plastic forming process in favor of collecting, cataloging, and curating these temporary and spontaneous gestural aesthetic exercises. He is dependent on imagination and a process of productive daydreaming as this shift from making to finding or from architecture to landscape occurs. (Somers 2006)

Lee Somer’s “Roadtrip”(2006) is a mixed media installation. It is a composition constructed from layering up of individual found ceramic pieces. The parts vary in color, surface, form, and size. They sit on the wall in the space occupied by a painting and act as brush strokes braking up the composition as well as providing it. The work is a representation of the timeline of travel and the jumbled cross sections of the passage thought landscape. Somers uses video along with his ceramic shard collage to describe two feelings of space, one being the landscape and the other the map guiding you though. This relationship shows the change in space though ones experience of it. It is not cut and dry whether the video or the collage represents the landscape of the map. The video acts to suggest the viewer becomes part of or participates in the momenr maybe representative of the landscape and the things you learn by being in the space. The video is however flat on the wall presenting the space two dimensionally like a map. At the same time, the three-dimensional representation of space provided by the ceramic college could bring us into the space but is static and unchanging like a map.

Linda Swanson, a 2005 Alfred MFA grad, is a ceramic artist. She is interested in the paradox between humans and nature, humans being part of nature however separated by their consciousness, consciousness being what makes us human. She is also intrigued by nature or landscape being opposed to culture. This is reminiscent of Somers’ ideas of the two being inherently connected. She believes our conception of nature is a cultural process. She uses her art as a bridge to span the gap. Swanson talks about nature through her art as a way of viewing nature through the culture her work represents. She tries to get a new perspective on nature by first de-familiarizing and then reevaluation it through the making process. She does this by looking at nature phenomenons like boiling mud pits and volcanic lava flows that occur where people cannot survive. She uses ceramic materials and processes to look at the wonder, beauty, and danger created by these environments and to blur the line between the natural and crafted: nature and culture. She accesses nature through this look at natural process, and then reinterprets her subject through ceramic process and material. Her process involves making tests, looking for things that relate to her interests and then following them through. She minimalizes gestural elements in order to make room for natural ones, fast and slow, up and down, inside and outside, noise and silence, organic and inorganic, and light and shadow.

In Swanson’s series titled “Views”, she explores ceramic crystalline glazes in a painterly manner by working with them as pure surfaces. She glazes cast porcelain, convex circles and displays them in metal rings, used as frames. The phenomenon of the glaze and the work references “both natural organic forms such as flowers as well as geometric forms.” This duel reference, indicative of the material, illustrates the concept of Swanson’s work. (Swanson 2005)

Swanson’s ideas about translating nature are exemplified by James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne paintings of the 1870’s. Like Swanson, Whistler did not view nature in a realistic manner. He unified surface and employed gentle but non-static tones. Swanson’s crystalline glazes mimic the importance he found, though Japanese prints, in including color throughout a composition. Both artists share a similar idea of deconstructing nature,

Whistler used dots of color to show presence of light in a reevaluation of natural phenomenon. Finally, like Swanson’s translation of nature though material, Whistler did not paint on site, translating nature though the filter of memory. (Sutton 12964)

Through a common material and three very different processes these Alfred MFA graduals all work in a painterly manner. They share other common themes including looking at destruction, as opposed to construction, as a productive process and discussing relationships between the natural world and the human world. Through this show we see a spectrum of the definition of painterly in regards to ceramics and hopefully can begin to understand the usefulness of the adjective.

Works Cited:

1. Linda Sormin, Master’s thesis, New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University,

2003.

2. Fuller, P. Aug., 1985. Francis Bacon, London. The Burlington Magazine Publications,

Ltd. Vol. 127, No. 989: 553-554.

3. Lee Somers, Master’s thesis, New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University,

2006.

4. Linda Swanson, Master’s thesis, New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University,

2005.

5. Sutton, Denys. 1964. Nocturne: The Art of James Mcneill Whistler. Philadelphia, New

York: J.B. Lippincott Company.