| Time scene |
SEVEN
COLLAGE AND ASSEMBLAGE ARTISTS TRANSFORM OBJECTS INTO ART AT THE
FIELDING GRADUATE INSTITUTE ART GALLERY
By Charles
Donelan
NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
Seven
local artists have turned the gallery of the Fielding Graduate
Institute into the scene of a sprawling, ambitious inquiry into time
and space through the multiple mediums of collage and assemblage art.
The artists, invited by curator participant Wayne J. Hoffman, include
Tony Askew, Daniel Case, Steve Cushman, Anne Luther, Barbara McIntyre
and Susan Savage.
More than 70 works are
now on view, ranging from the at once exuberant and wistful "54
Hared Ones" by Steve Cushman, with its central element of regulation
Rawlings baseballs, to the sensuous spiritual collages "Out of
the Ashes" and "The Narrow Gate" by Susan Savage, with
their delicate palettes and iconic tilted cross-structuring grids.
Curator Wayne J. Hoffman's
work is an anchor for the show, as Hoffman has a wide range, from the
Cornell-perfect balance of a cornucopia of small objects, as in "Sobrecarta,"
to the starkness of the portrait in "Israfel," scored as though
imprisoned and covered with a halo made of a half a broken dinner plate.
Tony Askew is the pop
star of the group. He sings with primary colors and bold conversions
of the grid. Give him the wrapper from a pack of smokes, a bright yellow
envelope from the photo shop, some red and black ink, and a piece of
an old ruler, and he will, as in "Camel 3-9," hand you back
a postmodern composition of great visual appeal and intellectual depth.
In "Quality Ride"
and "Look (Entrada)," the two halves of a yellow taxi show up,
entering and leaving the picture planes, traveling through the bright
sophisticated imaginary city of Askew's delightful work. Daniel Case pushes the
boundary between collage and assemblage, incorporating elements such as
steel instruments, mesh and netting with a pictorial sensibility informed
by abstract painting. In his series "The
Day After Tomorrow," "Next Tuesday" and "Thursday,"
his painterly style is most in evidence as minimalist arrangements of
black and silver on red are given subtle variations and masked with bits
of mesh and hair. The effect is haunting and beautiful. The emphasis on
time, as announced by the titles is one that runs through the exhibition.Steve Cushman is the most
vigorous in pursuit of the assemblage path, with objects nearly cascading
out of the antique drawers and wooden cases that often form the ad hoc
frames of his compositions.In the dark and enigmatic
"Not an Exit," the open lid of horizontal case holds a sideways
mounted print of San Luis Obispo Men's Colony. Could this eerie linoleum
cut, with its gnarled oak in the foreground, have come from a prison art
studio? On the bottom of the drawer a prefabricated metal sign proclaims
that this is "NOT AN EXIT."The drawer is, paradoxically,
filled with keys -- keys to doors, keys to cars, keys no longer in use.
Cushman raises one of the great basic questions of art: What is this work
an opening to?
At
top, Anne Luther's "Lost World."
Above, Wayne J. Hoffman's "Israfel.
| To look at the
handles and lids of these reclaimed drawers and valises is to
confront the desire we bring o art to be let in, to look inside
and to open up and explore the mind and the past.The show comes
together around certain standouts, such as Anne Luther's gorgeous,
romantic "Lost World." he close-up profile at the right
of the piece recalls the dreamlike atmosphere of May Deren's experimental
film Meshes of the Afternoon," while the horizontal organization
and image of the child suggest engagement with the personal past. |
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Luther also has
one of the most playful images in the show, her witty collage
of "Vintage Montecito," which is lovingly tongue-in-cheek
about the way luxury used to be depicted in postcards.
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