LINE SKIDMORE’S ART REVIEW 7.1
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Co-Presidents/ Editors-in-Chief Hilary Knecht ‘13
Letter from the Editors Kristin Travagline ‘12
Dear Art Lovers: Thanks for reading the first issue of LINE for the 2011-2012 year! This edition of LINE explores many exciting exhibitions at the Tang Museum as well as other galleries on campus and in downtown Saratoga. As is tradition, we have featured album art criticism.
Publicist Taylor Dafoe ‘13
Treasurer Elise Babigian ‘12
Special thanks to all who contributed to LINE, especially our writers and photographers! LINE would not be possible without our layout editor, Lindsay Johnson. Thank you Katie Hauser, our advisor, for your support. LINE primarily focuses on visual arts criticism at Skidmore and in the greater Saratoga Springs community. Contact lineartmag@ gmail.com if you are interested in contributing to this stellar publication. We hope that Skidmore will continue to embrace LINE as the voice for student opinions in the art community.
Layout Editor/Design Lindsay Johnson ‘12
Cover Art by Robert Parke-Harrison
Your Editors-in-Chief, Kristin and Hilary
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Opener 22: Whiting Tennis, Tang Museum Taylor Dafoe ‘13
CONTENT
Photos: Maddie Pelz ‘14
I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith, Tang Museum Sarah Page ‘12 Photos: Sarah Mohrmon ‘12
Album Art, In the Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel Lena Bilik ‘14 Photos: Neutral Milk Hotel Band Site; Cover Design by Jeff Magnum and Chris Bilheimer
Selected Art Faculty Exhibition, Schick Gallery Kristin Travagline ‘12 Photos: Sarah Mohrmon ‘12
Selected Art Faculty Exhibition Interview Featured: Peter Stake, Deborah Hall, Robert Parke-Harrison Interviewer: Kristin Travagline ‘12
In Time, Saratoga Arts Alex McGlinchy ‘14 Photos Provided by Joel Reed and Warren Holzman’s flickr
Behind Those Planes are Stars, Tang Museum Lydia Mozzone ‘14 Photos: Lydia Mozzone ‘14
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: 2 2 r e n e Op Whitin g
Tennis
, Tang Museum
By Taylor Dafoe
The Opener 22: Whiting Tennis exhibition at the Frances Young Tang
Tennis’s pieces are about humility, the beauty of imperfection and the rela-
Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is refreshingly sincere in its modesty. It’s full of quiet highlights that are as expressive as they are easy to observe.
tionship between the natural and the constructed, the world and the impact the artist has on it. His work is self-aware, but not self-conscious; it’s evocative but not grossly emotional or overly constructed. His work is humble. There’s a subtle sweetness to it, a simple satisfaction with its place in the world. It’s not concerned with breaching artistic limitations so much as it is with recognizing and refining them.
It doesn’t take a brief biography on a museum wall to know that Tennis is
from the Pacific Northwest. Every aspect of his art drips in it, from the evergreens and gray skies to the dark browns and deep reds of his rich collages, finally to the bark-covered sculptures housed in a worn-wooden casing. There’s a grungy aspect
Photos Maddie Pelz
within Tennis’s work, but it’s not the greasy-
like items distorted and deconstructed. There’s
haired power-chord grunge you might think. It’s
an energy to them, a liveliness that showcases
a welcoming, sit-down-and-think kind of grunge.
the magic of the mundane. For instance, the
A rainy-day grunge. A watch-the-world-go-by
sculpture Boogeyman, a tall, black box-like fig-
grunge.
ure, stands in the middle of the floor. Its shape
The exhibition is spacious and friendly.
The emphasis is on individual works rather than
is just as ominous and ambiguous as the name suggests, but strong for this reason.
the collection as a whole. Tennis’s work has
space to breathe, which is fitting as it is often
inspiration comes from the everyday, from the
preoccupied with space, or our use and ex-
things he sees around his neighborhood or city,
ploitation thereof. The majority of his paintings
and this is clear after just one look at any one
are wide-angled pictures depicting some sort of
of his sculptures. They look more like heaps
oblong architectural work – a crooked shed or
of wood than artistic forms. They’re bulky and
slanted shack. The structures are naturalistic in
Tennis has said in interviews that his
“His work is self-aware, but not
appearance, but in an obvious way, as if they
self-conscious; it’s evocative but
were desperately constructed to portray such
not grossly emotional or overly
an image. They are usually set on some open
constructed”
landscape, focalized, and fail to fit in with their surroundings. In the painting Mastodon, Tennis
crooked, roughed-up and rickety. Yet, there’s
depicts a skeletal wooden edifice that vaguely
beauty in this, like something you see on the
resembles what is presumably a mastodon,
side of some rural road that makes you look
covered in a blue tarp. The figure is set starkly
twice, maybe three times, and wonder curiously
against a mountainous, evergreen-filled back-
what it is, what it’s doing there.
ground, seemingly speaking to the relationship
between art and the environment.
Tennis’s work is often built upon the
juxtaposition of the natural and the constructed.
From a distance, his paintings look fluid and
whole, like a preconceived picture executed
slowly and strategically. Up close, though,
they are revealed to be much more than that:
they are angular collages – part painting, part
paper (which are his own woodblock prints) overlaying canvas – that seem spontaneous and pointed. There’s contrast but no tension here. For instance, in Wilderness Painting, a set of
His sculpture, too, is like this. His pieces re-
dark, odd-shaped logs are arranged intently
semble animal shapes, vehicles or houses – life-
in collage before a forest in the background.
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05
06 This dialectic between the foreground and the background, between the organized and the natural, exposes the heart of Tennis’s work. It’s one of the strongest pieces in the exhibition.
The artist’s rendering is genuine, as if
he’s consciously working with the organic rather than against it. He’s at once acknowledging the dwindling role of nature in art and accepting it, making the best of it.
There’s a resistance in his work to the
conventional. His pallet is simple and natural, dipping into the coolest of colors, the shades and hues of his native northwest. At times, though, he gives into the life imbued solely by the artist’s hand; that is, he reveals little hints of something more – drops of sharp reds or blues, or interpolations of text. And even when his pallet is monochromatic he manages to tease certain spots out, draw attention to them in a way that exhibits not their novelty but their irregularity, as if to say that it’s the imperfections in life that make it interesting.
The Whiting Tennis exhibition is, in
many ways, a breath of fresh air. It’s about the forgotten beauty of banality and the power of self-awareness. It’s about not taking life too seriously, about enjoying things, and learning to live with the world, not against it.
Opener 22: Whiting Tennis will be on view at the Tang Museum until December 30, 2011.
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An Artist’s Mind
I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith, Tang Museum By Sarah Page
The work is chaotic. The pieces, although separated into groups, hang in a jumble; not all the photographs hang at eye level. Sculpture pieces look down on you from a dividing wall as you wander through the exhibition. And this is all entirely intentional. The exhibition in the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery is I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith. Smith is best known for her sculpture, drawing and printmaking. This exhibition illustrates the way Smith views her own work and how she experiences the world around her, highlighting the confusion and brevity of the human mind. Smith has experimented with photography for years; as long as she has been working with other mediums, but this is first time the photos have been presented to the public almost completely on their own. Large photos dominate the exhibition with punctuations of a few sculptures, prints, and multi-media pieces. The subjects of her artworks are often unclear as many of the photos focus on extreme detail. They zoom closely in on the hand or the eyes of her human figures. The images depict her process without giving away exactly what she has created. The viewer sees an arm unattached to a body, but is left unclear about how it was made or of which piece it will be a part. Other images deconstruct fairy tales and childhood stories. Images like Untitled (Harpies) seem to do both. The image portrays the carved body parts of one of Smith’s sculptures. The spectator sees the pieces feet and what might be two heads. The pieces are made of a shiny red material and yet they are incomplete. They have been carved, but not assembled. Red flecks litter the floor. The composition cuts off in such a way that the it is unclear how the parts will become a whole. They are like fragmented thoughts not entirely formed into a full idea. But all the time, the viewer is conscious of Smith’s influence. These are her images; these are how she sees things. Photos by Sarah Mohrmon
08 The best example of these peeks into Smith’s mind can be seen in the small four by six inch photos that run along the base of entire gallery space. These pictures are not your everyday photography; they are not images of scenery or human faces. These pictures are physical copies of a thought, of something you catch out of the corner of your eye. In this exhibition, they are so numerous and located so far below eye level, essentially on the floor, it becomes impossible to look at each image individually. The images number in the hundreds. The images are in groups that repeat in different angles and vantage points. The viewer is left with snatches of ideas, glimpses of what she sees in a day, plans for her work, and emotional impact rather than a specific image. They mimic a mind. And not just any mind, but specifically Smith’s mind. As a whole, this exhibition of Smith’s work gives the viewer a sense of Smith as an artist. Smith allows the viewers into her thought process. We follow her through the daily life of the artist and her work. We are allowed to experience a little bit of Smith’s creative energy. The exhibition is so closely linked to Smith that no other artist could have put together such a collection in such a way. I Myself Have Seen It: Photography and Kiki Smith will be on view at the Tang Museum until December 30.
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Album Art By Lena Bilik
M
uch has been written about the cult indie classic album In the Aeroplane Over The
Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. Music reviewers have discussed its haunting melodies, allusions to Anne Frank, the mystery of its frontrunner, Jeff Mangum, and the transient quality of its unique and, at times, almost jarringly beautiful sound. But what about the album cover? The cover art of Aeroplane has itself arguably become an icon of its own. I know that, personally, if I saw even just the corner of the album sticking out of
Photos Neutral Milk Hotel Band Site; Cover Design by Jeff Magnum and Chris Bilheimer
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a collection, I would recognize it immediately.
the theme of Anne Frank. With that in mind the
The artwork is mottled and looks
cover becomes even more volatile. The star on
purposefully antiquated, like a cover of a book
the boy’s chest suddenly takes the shape of a
you would find in your grandmother’s attic, but
Jewish star, the arm gesture turns threatening,
with an eerie twist. The faded colors and style
akin to one you would see a thousand mindless
of art are evocative of familiar images from
soldiers mirroring in their marches of evil and
old-fashioned illustrations in picture books and
ignorance. The boy’s facial expression as
advertisements. But when you look closely,
he follows the arm movement of the faceless
there is more to this image than nostalgia.
woman suddenly becomes brainwashed, in
The faceless woman in the foreground
awe and scared all at once. The sea grows
causes uneasiness. Instead of a face, we
murkier and dark clouds roll into the tea-stained
see a surprisingly round and jarringly white
sky. Images of tomatoes, radio wires and faces
tambourine. A blank face never fails to cause discomfort or, at the very least, intrigue, making us wonder what her commanding role is in the image. To add to the eerie scene, heads float in the murky blue water in the background; it is hard to tell if there has just been a shipwreck or if the faceless woman is directing some sort of swimming race. The opposition of sinister
“The star on the boy’s chest suddenly takes the shape of a Jewish star, the arm gesture turns threatening, akin to one you would see a thousand mindless soldiers mirroring in their marches of evil and ignorance”
versus idyllic pervade the album, as beautiful words and frightening imagery combine. A
filled with flies dance in our heads.
line will begin with a positive idea, “And how
“like a cover of a book you would
it’s easy to forget the iconic cover art, but I
When discussing this iconic album,
find in your grandmother’s attic, but with an eerie twist”
know anyone who knows the album knows
you built a tower tumbling through the trees,”
is similar to the music of the album itself. Soft
and proceed to something more sinister, “In
and muted tones with accosting, ambiguous,
holy rattlesnakes that fell around your feet.”
visceral imagery sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel
to me.
By doing a little research, or just
picking up some rumors, you will find that this album has often been said to revolve around
the image just as well. In this iconic tradition, however you look at it, the cover of Aeroplane
11
Selected Art Faculty Exhibition, Schick Art Gallery
By Kristin Travagline
Photos Sarah Mohrmon
12 The Selected Art Faculty Exhibition
across the pristine landscape. Piano parts, a
opened in Schick Art Gallery on September
wasp nest, and medical tubes wrap around
15. with a variety of striking individual pieces
the hand, creating a device that paints the red
and a collective cohesion in both appearance
line.
and theme, largely contemplating humanity’s relationship to nature.
Upon walking into the gallery
“It’s like he’s trying to draw a line in the snow, as though he’s using his own bodily substance and fluid to create art from. This
one cannot help but assume that the artists
image was based on the extreme difficulty
constructed their pieces with the goal of a
and pain of creating something new,” Parke-
unified exhibition in mind. Yet, the opposite is
Harrison said.
true. Serendipitously, the light green surfaces of
The mechanical components of The Scribe resonate with Professor David Peterson’s brass sculpture Aero II that is comprised of many small metal details to present a complex, unified industrial structure reminiscent of a bicycle, skyscraper, and satellite simultaneously.
Professor Leslie Ferst’s organic sculptures, Ebb and Flow, play upon the turquoise water of the
However, one cannot simply attribute the rich interplay of these pieces to chance.
Columbia River featured in Professor Deborah Hall’s photograph Artifacts across the room that picks up the vibrant green grass displayed in Professor Robert Parke-Harrison’s mixed media image Bloodroot.
On the center wall of the gallery
hangs Parke-Harrison’s image The Scribe that depicts a white winter scene, with the faint outline of pine trees in the background. In the foreground, a hand, modeled after ParkeHarrison’s, draws a striking line of blood
The gallery director and curator, Peter Stake, took pains to assemble the exhibition in a manner that “brings out the individuality of each piece,” Stake said. Stake manages
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numerous aspects of the exhibition including
sabbatical in fall 2010. These pictures were taken
coordinating with the faculty two to three years in
at Priest Lake in northern Idaho where Hall visited
advance of the show to determine the featured art
as a child. She recalled the location being “very
department faculty members.
remote… very undeveloped, it was peaceful and
“We have so many faculty in the department that we decided it would be better to show a few faculty at a time so they can have more pieces in the show and the students get a
wonderful and you could just go from this trail, run down, jump in this water and swim, I mean it was crystal clear to the bottom.” However, when she visited the site last
better idea of their work overall,” Stake said. Stake
fall she was confronted with a worn-in trail and
aims to exhibit a range of mediums in the show.
private waterfront properties. Although Hall could
In presenting the work, he takes into consideration
no longer access the water from the walking
the most advantageous ways for the artwork to be
path, as she was not allowed on the neighbors’
presented, including installation, vantage point,
properties, various welcome signs ironically
lighting, and overall aesthetics.
greeted her along her walk.
Yet, across the board, the pieces reveal a common theme and interest on the part of the “I HOPE THAT STUDENTS START THINKING ABOUT DIFFERENT POSSIBILITIES, NOT JUST APPRECIATING THE WORK THAT IS IN THE GALLERY, BUT THINKING ABOUT POSSIBILITIES FOR THEIR OWN WORK. IT KIND OF ENLARGES THEIR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE AND ENLARGES THEIR PERCEPTION” artists: environmentalism. Several of the pieces in the exhibition convey a melancholy desire for a return to nature and nostalgia for humans’ lost connection with the natural world. Hall features three photos, out of a series of 14, taken on the Columbia River during her
Photos Sarah Mohrmon
Hall said the narrow vertical composition of the photos reflects the narrow focus of the property owners as well as the narrow composition of the plots. Hall’s photos Artifacts and Percussions deal with similar concerns about humans’ interactions with nature. Parke-Harrison’s mixed-media image Mourning raises prominent questions about humanity’s relationship with nature. “We’re really interested in concepts of the environment. Over all the years of making, one of the great successes that we’ve found was when our work was put in the context of the environmental movement, as a voice for artists that address this issue,” ParkeHarrison said, who collaborates with his wife, Shana Parke-Harrison, on all of his artwork. The image depicts a male figure sitting
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in a prison-like cell with his body and face turned away from the viewer. The cool, blue-grey tones of the piece lend a melancholy mood to the scene. Yet, vibrant butterflies flit into the scene from an opening in the cell and rest upon the man’s body, modeled off of Parke-Harrison’s own figure. Parke-Harrison remarked that depending upon how the viewer interprets the image, the man may be either harming the butterflies or gently taking them into his hands. “He’s in this kind of cold state of this sort of modern person out of touch with the natural world, but it’s about that combined moment, that magical moment. It’s hard to say what would happen next in this image,” Parke-Harrison said. Likewise, Ferst made her series Ebb and Flow for an exhibition based on “fragile ecosystems.” The ceramic pod-like shapes, subdued moss-like colors, and inviting textures suggest coral or even fungi. “These are sort of more tactile, kind of intimate pieces,” Ferst said. The intimacy of the Schick Gallery provides a comfortable venue for students and the Saratoga community to contemplate the intricate interplay of ideas and images brought alive by these pieces. “I hope that students start thinking about different possibilities, not just appreciating the work that is in the gallery, but thinking about possibilities for their own work. It kind of enlarges their sphere of influence and enlarges their perception,” Stake said.
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Selected Art Faculty Exhibition Interviews Interview conducted by Kristin Travagline
PETER STAKE, DIRECTOR OF GALLERY, CURATOR
LINE: What do you hope students will take away from this exhibition?
LINE: Describe the Selected Art Faculty Exhibition. STAKE: Individual art faculty bring students in to look at the STAKE: We usually have what’s called Selected Faculty and
work and talk about different aspects of the work and then
it’s usually four to six faculty every year. And it’s one of the
a lot of times we’ll have English classes or other professors
shows that the students really like because they can actually
bringing students in to write about the work in relation to
see what their faculty members are doing.
different assignments they may be doing in class. I hope
LINE: How do you select which faculty you are going to feature each year? STAKE: We try and schedule two or three years in advance, seeing which faculty members haven’t shown recently and asking them if they would like to show the following year. We try to get a mix so it isn’t all two-dimensional, not all three-dimensional work, but a mix of the two. All of this is all recent work. LINE: How do you set up the exhibition? STAKE: It is a matter of arranging them so that it brings out the individuality of each piece. The artists have certain stipulations. For example, Leslie didn’t want these three ceramic pieces on bases so we have this crushed stone that they use in ceramics, like a sand, she wanted them to sit on. And you try out different things, you move things here and there, you move them a foot this way, you move them across the room, you move them back and forth until it looks like you can kind of see the range of things as you come in the door and then there’s room enough to walk around the pieces.
that students start thinking about different possibilities, not just appreciating the work that is in the gallery, but thinking about possibilities for their own work. It kind of enlarges their sphere of influence and enlarges their perception so they start thinking about their own work in a slightly different way. DEBORAH HALL, PROFESSOR AND ARTIST LINE: When and where did you take the two Artifacts photos and Game Preserve? HALL: I went on sabbatical in the fall semester of 2010 and I decided that I wanted to go back west and, even though I’m from Oregon, I hadn’t spent an extended period there for some time. I grew up on the Columbia River, I was born on the Columbia River, and I’ve worked at various places along the Columbia River in my life. So I took my drawing supplies, my cameras, library, my two jack Russells, everything. We had a trailer and went for three months. We went from the source of the Columbia River, starting at Bonneville Dam, which was one of the first dams built on the Columbia River, and then went all the way to the Columbia ice fields, which
16 ROBERT PARKE-HARRISON, PROFESSOR AND ARTIST LINE: Describe your artistic process. is really like the birthplace of the Columbia River.
PARKE-HARRISON: I work in collaboration with my wife, a hundred percent from beginning to end of making it.
LINE: Why did you title the two photos Artifacts? HALL: For me nature is very therapeutic, reconnecting with nature is really important. What’s happening is that more and more, I think, people are starting to experience nature through the screen. Artifacts are two things, the little bits and
What we’re really interested in is exploring this relationship of humans to technology and nature. I think we’re really interested in creating things that have kind of a questioning presence, in other words you are not giving answers to the viewer, but creating things that create agitation or narrative.
dots and lines that show up on your computer screen when
I’m in a lot of the work. Not that I love to get my picture
your computer screen is breaking down. Another definition
taken, but I like to physically become part of the work. And
for artifacts is that it can be an object relating to a particular
that’s actually how I started making art was starting out by
cultural period. So these pieces are named “artifacts”
making self-portraits. I want to be very universal in a way,
because I think of that juxtaposition between seeing nature
very generic.
on the screen and no longer really appreciating it not as an entity, but only as a mirage in a way.
LINE: What themes influence you work?
LINE: How did you come up with the title Percussions?
PARKE-HARRISON: We’re really interested in concepts of the environment. Over all the years of making, one of the
I liked the idea of a musical analogy, and then I also liked
great successes that we’ve found was when our work was
the idea of repercussions. So in a strange way the broken
put in the context of the environmental movement, as a voice
glass is more about creating harmony between nature and
for artists that address this issue. We used to live in New
human structure. This is a newer photo and this is Zankel
Mexico, for quite a while when we were in graduate school
[Music Center], when you are at the outside of the building
and that connection to the landscape there really had a
looking at the glass. That really interested me because it has
profound effect on us.
a real gridded out structure, which I think leads to that idea of development. Then you see nature is reflected in there, but it’s distorted. The bird has a beautiful song, and the building was built for music. So there really is beautiful sound and beautiful things that mankind does, but there has to be a balance with nature. I like that idea of the bird breaking the glass and shattering it and having a different view of nature.
LINE: What was it like creating your piece Bloodroot? We did very little in the computer. We wanted that very wet, visceral cross section. So he’s kind of looking at himself dead (laughs). We come from this total film dark room world, you know we didn’t have computers when we your age, so we were very accustomed to making things. This is just Styrofoam material with all the mud attached and then we just went into our backyard and tore off a piece of grass.
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IN TIME, SARATOGA ARTS JENNIFER NUTTALL ASH, WARREN HOLZMAN AND TYSON SKROSS By Alex McGlinchy
In Time, an exhibition at the Saratoga Arts Center, features three artists from around the world whose works come together under the same general theme. Jennifer Nuttall Ash, Warren Holzman and Tyson Skross’s works suggest a concern with memory. In his paintings, Skross uses texture and color to work with the idea of the coexistence of past and present. Holzman’s ironwork offers a new look at the memory of childhood, while Ash’s mixed-media works shed a heavier light on the same subject of childhood.
At first glance around the gallery, the size
and bright colors of Tyson Skross’s paintings captured my attention. As I made my way from painting to painting I realized there was more to his work than bold colors and texture. The subject matter present would normally categorize the paintings as landscapes, but they seem to be more story-like than anything else. In his painting Rshew Skross creates a story line between the black dripping tree alongside the bright airplane against the linear grass which creeps up towards the structure in the background. Skross’s paintings combine man-made items with nature by using texture and a broad spectrum of color. The combination of bold yellows, pinks and blues set against deep greens, browns and grays interplay with one another and the texture of paint splatters and drips to give emotion to the works. It seems as though every Photos Provided by Joel Reed and Warren Holzman’s flickr
18
object presented in the paintings is interconnected
depicted in these colors resemble small girls with
through color and texture, just as the past and
pigtails. The girl figures are distorted, as if children
present are forever linked. The paintings work well
themselves drew them. These whimsical figures are
individually and collectively bring about a feeling of
the main characters in a narrative full of destruction,
the past and the present merging together, perhaps
including the presence of machinery, fire and chains.
in one swift flick of a paintbrush.
Though narratives differ throughout the paintings, the
Warren Holzman’s work relates to Skross’s
through the idea of memory, but the focus of Holzman’s iron figures turns toward childhood. The iron sculptures resemble childhood toys of a past generation. The pieces seem as though they were found lying around a junkyard waiting for someone that would never come. But unlike the wooden toys
overall theme remains the same. The combination of childhood whimsy and such grotesque narratives in the paintings lend the viewer an uncomfortable feeling of ambivalence. On one hand the paintings evoke memories of childhood, while on the other hand it addresses extremely heavy narratives. In Time is a perfectly named exhibition; it
they resemble, these iron sculptures were created
is exactly what the title suggests it will be. It is about
with a lot more time and consideration. Although
specific moments in time, where artists have found
their forms are simple, the emotions behind them
ways to capture great emotion and themes about
are not. The sculptures’ toy-like forms, rusted metal
childhood and memory. Although all three artists
and paint create a new experience for the viewer
work with the same theme, I found the works of
while, at the same time, evoking memories of
Holzman and Ash to coincide closer to one another
childhood.
than either to Skross’s work; they had the same
Jennifer Nuttall Ash also focuses on childhood and its themes. Like Skross, Ash works two-dimensionally, but with a twist. Ash not only uses traditional materials such as paint and marker to create her works, but she also uses different color duct tapes. This gives Ash’s paintings the look and feel of collages. Unlike collages created by teenage girls, Ash’s paintings do not feel cluttered and messy as she uses almost no color. A mixture of browns, tans, pinks, reds, grays and blacks set a dark tone for her three paintings. The figures
subject of childhood. The gallery space at Saratoga Arts, where Skross’s work is on one side versus Ash’s and Holzman’s on another, suggests this connection. Having Skross’s work apart from the other artists’ also makes the separation of theme clear. Skross is working on a broader theme of memory as compared to a specified time such as childhood. All three artists’ works interact with one another in the same way that memory and childhood coexist with one another, but are not always one in the same. Saratoga Arts is located at 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs.
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The Winter Gallery: A Questionable Compilation Behind Those Planes are Stars, Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery By Lydia Mozzone
The lighting is dimmed and the shades are drawn in the Tang Museum’s Winter Gallery. The glimmer of an evacuation chair displayed at the end of the hallway immediately catches one’s gaze. Pictures hang on either side of the chair. Two display tables on the opposing walls house pictures, notes, certificates, and metals that recount the life of a woman
Photos Lydia Mozzone
:
20 named Elizabeth Fisher Adams.
The Tang Curatorial Assistant, Megan
Hyde, organized the exhibition, entitled Behind
one of the first women to see the ranks of the U.S. army. She raised money and awareness to help those whose lives had been devastated by war.
Those Planes Are The Stars. In the wake of the tenth
anniversary of September 11th, Americans question
over an hour looking through the exhibition dedicated
why humans are driven to fight and kill and how
to Adams’s story. Within the tables are articles, pictures,
these actions affect the human population. The
drawings, hand-written letters, notes from Adams to her
show consists of artworks from the Tang Collection
mother, and metals. The neat and organized presenta-
and Skidmore’s Special Collections by artists from
tion of this work gives each piece of memorabilia its
England and the United States who address war
own sense of importance. However, the display is quite
through art. The works are made up of a variety
full. Each note and picture should maintain its own inde-
of art forms dating from the eighteenth to twentieth
pendent space in order for the viewer to fully appreciate
centuries.
the work’s components. The cases are saturated with
I found myself most intrigued by the
portion of the show dedicated to Elizabeth Fisher Adams. Adams had just graduated from Skidmore
This story inspired me; I found myself spending
unbelievable items and the work should be distributed evenly into a third display case to make it more inviting and less overwhelming.
College when WWII broke out in 1939. She
immediately felt an obligation to take part in the
than the Adams piece. Framed photographs and draw-
war and returned to her hometown of Providence,
ings from different war-time decades hang on each wall.
Rhode Island, for training to become an ambulance
When first entering the gallery, one notices the framed
and truck driver for an American war aid organiza-
painting on the left wall done by Robert Andrew Parker.
tion stationed in France. When war commenced
The painting style in this piece displays a union between
in 1939, Adams dedicated her life to helping refu-
cartoon and pop-art. The painting Sunday Dinner for a Soldier depicts a hospital room at the Base Camp of Camp Lewis Washington.
gees, giving lectures back home, and joining the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Adams became
The remainder of the exhibition is less personal
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22
Across the hall is a series of
Most pieces are related in
miniscule engravings done by William
some way to WWII, but then some
Hogarth in 1725. The works depict
works relate to the Boston Massacre
quite brutal scenes, though one must
and some depict unrelated violence.
use a magnifying glass to understand
From a strictly artistic standpoint, I
the content within each piece. Hog-
think the show does a wonderful job
arth worked with incredible precision
of meshing a variety of media sources
in creating these pieces and each
and lighting the exhibition to set the
engraving has beautiful, thoughtful
tone. However, the subject matter
marks.
lacks a sense of cohesion. The subject of violence is not enough to hold a Every component of the exhi-
set of diverse artworks together. The
bition is unique and thought provok-
Adams section is the most captivating
ing. As I progressed further down the
aspect. The curator could construct a
hallway, I viewed a set of two beauti-
very personal exhibition about war
ful gelatin silver print photographs of
if each piece were about a certain
World War II, a 1954 ejection seat
soldier. This way, the pieces could
(which stands alone on the floor), and
easily be from different time periods;
“Hogarth worked with incredible precision in creating these pieces and each engraving has beautiful, thoughtful marks�
yet each component of the show would evoke the same feeling rather than leaving the viewer somewhat confused. In Behind Those Planes Are
a set of three screen prints about the
The Stars each piece is stunningly
Boston Massacre and the Civil War
different from the next. The works
in Vietnam. I can appreciate that each
evoke a passionate respose as we
piece is very different from the other;
are reminded of the horrors of war.
but when does an exhibition become
Behind Those Planes Are The Stars will
too diverse?
be up through December 30.
NIL