APOCALYPTIc Truman State University Art Department
In the Truman State University Art Gallery | January 22 – February 21, 2014
Truman State University Art Department:
APOCALYPTIC In the Truman State University Art Gallery January 22 – February 21, 2014 Curated by Aaron Fine With assistance from Dr. Bob Mielke and Dr. Dereck Daschke Installation supervised by Emma Roeder with Human Resources assistance from Katherine Green Artwork by: Marin Abell Miranda Brandon Audrey Byron Steve Cole James Crnkovich Robert Del Tredici James Ehlers Matthew Groves George Lorio
David Mazure Jason Phillips Paul Shambroom Steve Shepard Krista Steinke James Herald Jennings Jill Waterhouse Melissa Wilkinson Jave Gakumei Yoshimoto Unknown artists
and Lori Nix in the companion exhibition “Lori Nix – Post Apocalyptic”
Spring 2014
APOCALYPTIC
This exhibition was inspired by a couple of images I came across in quick succession: “The Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire” by L.A. artist Ed Rusche’ and the image of the painting of Old Baldwin Hall, after it burned to the ground, which hangs in Pickler Memorial Library on the campus of Truman State University. Though one is fictional and the other based in fact, they both spoke to me about a sort of gothic appeal in images of our world coming apart around us. I then thought very easily of dozens of recent pop cultural apocalyptic indulgences – mainly in the realm of cinema and video games. These reflections needed a ballast, which I found in the focus of my English faculty colleague, Dr. Bob Mielke, on the reality of the bomb, and of all things in bomb culture. Sitting on the 2nd floor balcony behind Woody’s I asked Dr. Dereck Dashcke to tell me about the apocalypse. In between googling images of buildings falling down, buildings on fire, etc. he expounded for me his perspective on the gist of the apocalypse, from a theological perspective. Barely any traffic moved through the streets and parking lots below us as he spoke of a fundamental lesson to be learned from stories about the end of everything; the world is lying to us. The possibility that the world and everything in it, especially those “worldly” powers that be, are lying to us - transforms the apocalypse from a subject matter for art to a frame for viewing all artifacts. I soon realized this explained my confusion about the amount of apocalyptic items in Dr. Mielke’s collection. While he does have plenty of morbid artifacts on display, it is the total context of his collections, the walls of science fiction, the documentary artifacts related to nuclear testing, the day of the dead folk art, and the experimental cacophony of his particular interests in film, music and all other media, that transforms every benign vacation trinket into a postcard from the end of the world. The apocalypse is a movie we are ready to play in our heads at any time. When the economy tanks I start wondering how many chickens I could raise in my backyard. When the polar vortex hits I imagine how long my furniture could serve as fuel after the heat goes out.
The core of this exhibition is a cold eyed presentation by three members of the Atomic Photographers Guild: James Crnkovich, Robert Del Tredici, and Paul Shambroom. Their work goes deep into the heart of America’s nuclear arsenal, the places where the only apocalypse we can really count on lies coiled. But they also fan out to explore the atomic hamburgers and irradiated old soldiers who make up the daily life of a people and a landscape deeply altered by their status as nuclear superpower. The outer layers of this exhibition are the fanciful visions generated by artists responding to the many apocalypses of our imaginations – zombie, environmental, alien invasion, biblical, etc. Whether grim or funny, mournful or celebratory, we see that contemporary art’s penchant for fiction allows for a fruitful probing of this topic. Steve Cole and James Ehlers imagine the biblical apocalypse in a contemporary setting, giving us wrestling match posters and barroom revelations respectively. Jave Yoshimoto also gives us a Japanese apocalypse combining nuclear devastation and tsunami with a blizzard of consumerism. Jason Phillips and George Lorio give us work that evokes child’s play and the fun of creating a mock up of our world, only to destroy it. Miranda Brandon and Krista Steinke, as well as Marin Abell, fabricate objects and scenes recording a near future disaster, where the natural environment is providing pushback against human over reach, or we are reverting to wall building, relearning the art of improvised defenses. Matthew Groves presents in this exhibition work that appears to take its inspiration directly from traditional imagery of Catholic cultures, such as those day of the dead artifacts of Dr. Mielke’s. But other work by Grove, which we weren’t able to include in the exhibition, seemingly refers to space aliens from the B movies of the cold war era. Another piece that was curated into the exhibition was an installation of wallpaper by David Mazure. This baroque decoration, which also couldn’t ultimately be included, abstracts images of amputees who lost their limbs in America’s war on terror. Finally, both Melissa Wilkinson and Jill Waterhouse incorporate the destruction of our theme into their creative process, embracing the collisions and dislocations that disaster brings and making new art from the fragments of the old world. As a complement to “Apocalyptic” we have presented several large prints by the artist Lori Nix in the Side Gallery. “Lori Nix – Post Apocalyptic” presents eight prints from Ms. Nix’s series “The City”, in which she photographs her own painstakingly fabricated dioramas of our world after we have left it. These displays are intricately detailed, and generally pleasing and peaceful, as the cacophony of our consumerist society gives way to a new natural paradise.
- Aaron Fine
INSTALLATION VIEWS
Chevaux de Frise
Marin Abell
photographic documentation of ephemeral installation, 24�x36�
Miranda Brandon
Last of Its Kind
mixed media installation, 11�x8�
Audrey Byron Mike – 10.4 megatons Enewetak Atoll, 1952 Oil on canvas, 18”x14”
Priscilla – 37 kilotons Nevada, 1957 Oil on canvas. 19”x22”
Bluestone – 1.27 Megatons Christmas Island, 1962 Oil on canvas. 23”x19”
7 Angels, 7 Seals, 7 Bowls of Wrath digital prints, 31”x24”
The Whore of Babylon digital prints, 31”x24”
Steve Cole
Open For Survival
photographs and text, 4’x14’
Glastonbury Fallout Shelter Gardner, MT photographs and text, 4’x14’
James Crnkovich
Robert Del Tredici Glass Ball, Exact Size of the Plutonium Core in the Nagasaki Bomb
black and white photographic prints, 18’x21�
Digital Prints on Canvas
James Ehlers Famine Buys Gluttony One Last Drink metal engravings, 18’x21� framed size
Earthly Glories
glazed earthenware, 28”x10”x7”
Matthew Groves
Predator
found wooden dominos with found and fabricated toy parts, dimensions variable, approximately 1’ - 2’ high
Family Farm
found wooden dominos with found and fabricated toy parts, dimensions variable, approximately 1’ - 2’ high
George Lorio
David Mazure
Defeated/Amputees (WAR) (not included in the physical exhibition) silkscreen prints on clayboard w/recycled tire rubber flocking, each panel 18x24
Jason Phillips
Untitled, 1”x27” oil on panel
Untitled, 36”x2”
oil on panel
Untitled
(Poseidon missile tubes, Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, Georgia.) color coupler prints, 25�x31� framed size
Paul Shambroom
1973 – I Went Floundering Along the Gautier Beach
mixed media on paper, 39”x51”
Steve Shepard
Krista Steinke Swarm
archival pigment prints, 20”x20”
Flood
archival pigment prints, 20”x20”
James Herald Jennings No Bully Whip Sis mixed media, 17”x19”x7”
Indian Parade
mixed media, 22”x20”x3”
Fission Fusion Fashion mixed media, 48”x43”x7”
What Remains
mixed media installation, 6’x20’
Jill Waterhouse
5 Selections from Architecture Series
graphite and ink on paper, sizes range from 38”x50” to 60”x44”
Melissa Wilkinson
Jave Gakumei Yoshimoto Harbinger of Late Winter Day’s Dusk
gouache on paper, 32”x43”
Unknown artists Angel of Death wood, 31”x32”x6”
Day of the Dead Nativity Mixed media interactive, 10”x14”x5”
Devil Mask
wood and horn, 15”x12”x8”
Library
digital prints, 34”x42”
Shoe Store
digital prints, 34”x42”
Lori Nix – Post Apocalyptic
“Lori Nix – Post Apocalyptic” is a companion show that was exhibited in the Side Gallery simultaneously with “Apocalyptic.”
APOCALYPTIC
Checklist for the Exhibition
MARIN ABELL Chevaux de Frise
photographic documentation of ephemeral installation, 24”x36”
MIRANDA BRANDON Tomorrow’s Natural History: Highrise 44”x36” Last of Its Kind 11”x8” Adaptation 44”x36” mixed media installation
AUDREY BYRON Mike – 10.4 megatons, Enewetak Atoll, 1952
Oil on canvas, 18”x14” collection of Bob Mielke
Priscilla – 37 kilotons, Nevada, 1957
Oil on canvas. 19”x22” collection of Bob Mielke
Bluestone – 1.27 Megatons, Christmas Island, 1962
Oil on canvas. 23”x19” collection of Bob Mielke
STEVE COLE 7 Angels, 7 Seals, 7 Bowls of Wrath Beast Versus Lamb Jesus Is Back The Holy Trinity Versus the Unholy Trinity The Whore of Babylon digital prints, 31”x24” each
JAMES CRNKOVICH Untitled installation
photographs and text, 4’x14’
ROBERT DEL TREDICI Pit Stop 3’4”x4’9” Holy Terror 5’x3’6” Santa and Saddam 3’5”x5’ Falling Man 3’5”x4’3” Zeitgeist 3’5”x4’9” digital prints on canvas
Pathological Atomic Bomb Materials Storage Room, Nagasaki Medical School Andrew John Kearney Peers Into the Captain’s Berth of the Vessel “Radium Gilbert” Particle of Plutonium in Lung Tissue, Alpha Radiation All the Warheads in the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Mona Lisa of the Glove Box, Plutonium Finishing Plant, Hanford Monument to the Splitting of the Atom, Chelyabinsk, Russia Maids of Muslyumovo, Chelyabinsk, Russia Glass Ball, Exact Size of the Plutonium Core in the Nagasaki Bomb black and white photographic prints, 18’x21”
JAMES EHLERS Asmodeus Death Conquest Death Walks Into a Bar Famine Buys Gluttony One Last Drink War and Wrath metal engravings, each 18’x21” framed size
MATTHEW GROVES Earthly Glories
glazed earthenware, 28”x10”x7”
GEORGE LORIO Cooling Tower Family Farm Predator Domino House Drink
found wooden dominos with found and fabricated toy parts, dimensions variable, approximately 1’ - 2’ high
DAVID MAZURE Defeated/Amputees (WAR)
not included in the physical exhibition silkscreen prints on clayboard w/recycled tire rubber flocking, each panel 18x24
JASON PHILLIPS Untitled, 36”x2” Untitled, 1”x27” oil on panel
PAUL SHAMBROOM Untitled (Debris from 1st stage of unsuccessful Minuteman I missile test launch, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.) Untitled (Ohio class Trident submarine, USS Alaska in drydock for refit, Bangor Naval Submarine Base, Washington.) Untitled (Blast door, “November 1” Minuteman II Launch Control Center, Newell, South Dakota.) Untitled (Joint Chiefs of Staff Conference Room, National Military Command Center, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.) Untitled (Poseidon missile tubes, Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, Georgia.) Untitled (Peacekeeper missile silo test launch preparation, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.) color coupler prints, each 25”x31” framed size
KRISTA STEINKE Explosion Purple Rain Flood Flooded House Swarm
archival pigment prints, 20”x20” JAMES HERALD JENNINGS No Bully Whip Sis
mixed media, 17”x19”x7” collection of Bob Mielke
Indian Parade
mixed media, 22”x20”x3” collection of Bob Mielke
JILL WATERHOUSE What Remains
mixed media installation, 6’x20’
STEVE SHEPARD Another Job Well Done – Rambo 1969
Fission Fusion Fashion
mixed media on paper, 27”x35” collection of Bob Mielke
mixed media, 48”x43”x7” collection of Bob Mielke
1973 – I Went Floundering Along the Gautier Beach
MELISSA WILKINSON 5 selections from Architecture Series
mixed media on paper, 39”x51” collection of Bob Mielke
graphite and ink on paper, sizes range from 38”x50” to 60”x44”
JAVE GAKUMEI YOSHIMOTO Harbinger of Late Winter Day’s Dusk gouache on paper, 32”x43”
Stray Dog Strut
digital illustration C-print on vinyl, 48”x91”
Vultures of Fragments Past gouache on paper, 28”x42”
UNKNOWN ARTISTS Day of the Dead Nativity
Mixed media interactive, 10”x14”x5” collection of Bob Mielke
Angel of Death
wood, 31”x32”x6” collection of Bob Mielke
Devil Mask
wood and horn, 15”x12”x8” collection of Bob Mielke
LORI NIX Anatomy Classroom Botanic Garden Subway digital prints, 52”x64”
Vacuum Showroom Church Shoe Store Library Laundromat at Night digital prints, 34”x42”
“Lori Nix – Post Apocalyptic” is a companion show that was exhibited in the Side Gallery simultaneously with “Apocalyptic.”
STEVE SHEPARD Another Job Well Done – Rambo 1969 mixed media on paper, 27”x35
Curated by Aaron Fine
Special Thanks to Dr. Bob Mielke, Dr. Dereck Daschke & Dr. James D’Agostino
Financial Support from The Friends of the Gallery This project supported in part by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.
Catalog Design by Lexi Sesti, Assistant Art Director, Fine Arts Design, Truman State University
APOCALYPTIc Truman State University Art Department
In the Truman State University Art Gallery | January 22 – February 21, 2014
Image credit front cover: Jave Gakumei Yoshimoto, “Harbinger of Late Winter Day’s Dusk” Image credit back cover: Jill Waterhouse, Installation view “Fission Fusion Fashion”