Lattice

R o b e r t Or t b a l

L at t i c e

R o b e r t Or t b a l

L at t i c e University Art Gallery Department of Art College of the Arts California State University Stanislaus

500 copies printed Robert Ortbal: Lattice University Art Gallery Department of Art College of the Arts California State University, Stanislaus February 6 - March 2, 2012

This exhibition and catalog have been funded by: Associated Students Instructionally Related Activities, California State University, Stanislaus

Copyright Š 2012 California State University, Stanislaus All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

University Art Gallery College of the Arts California State University, Stanislaus One University Circle Turlock, CA 95382

Catalog Design: Kristina Stamper, College of the Arts, California State University, Stanislaus Catalog Printing: The Print Shop, California State University, Stanislaus

ISBN: 978-0-9830998-7-1

Cover Image: beyond, 2012, paper and steel drywall corner tape mounted on wood (detail)

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C ontents

Director’s Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

David M. Roth: An interview with Robert Ortbal............................................................... . 6 Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Curriculum Vita. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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D ir e ctor’s F or eword Robert Ortbal: Lattice, represents an overview of an amazing body of work. This compelling work challenges our notions of sculpture and the very materials that make it. Working both on and off the wall, the work compels the viewer to become involved and constantly asking questions of one’s own ideas of what sculpture is today.

I would like to thank the many colleagues who have been involved in presenting this exhibition: Robert Ortbal, for the chance of exhibiting his astonishing work; David Roth, for his wonderful interview; California State University, Stanislaus, College of the Arts, for the catalog design; and the Print Shop for the printing of this catalog.

Great thanks are also extended to the Instructionally Related Activities Program of California State University, Stanislaus, as well as to anonymous donors for the funding of the exhibition and catalog.

Dean De Cocker, Director University Art Gallery California State University, Stanislaus

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In a universe that is all gradations of matter, from gross to fine to finer, so that we end up with everything we are composed of in a lattice, a grid, a mesh, a mist, where particles or movements so small we cannot observe them are held in a strict and accurate web, that is nevertheless nonexistent to the eyes we use for ordinary living—in this system of fine and finer, where then is the substance of a thought? — Doris Lessing

Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. — Confucius

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David M . R ot h: A n Intervi ew with Robert Ortbal David M. Roth: When I look at your work, I always think that materials speak to you in the same way high-frequency sounds speak to animals: in them you “hear” things most of us can’t. Do materials, by themselves, suggest forms?

Robert Ortbal: Thanks, I like that metaphor. These days I seem to be a true omnivore when it comes to materials. Back when I was an undergraduate I worked almost exclusively in clay; but by the time I was in graduate school I was exploring all different kinds of materials and processes. Once I finished school, large-scale installations using domestic or household materials became my focus. To answer your question, sometimes materials suggest forms; but often they don’t. I wouldn’t want to be classified as a found object artist. I have always wanted to have a lot of latitude when it comes to developing my work. I spend a lot of time in the studio, so I want to have as much fun as I can while still approaching the work in a serious and provocative way. Typically, I develop imagery and then search out the right materials and processes to get at what I want to say.

DR: You use things like flocking and resin very skillfully – not just to conceal the identity of your materials but to make them closely resemble things they are not. I’m thinking, specifically of Oz, where plastic hose has the color and texture of granite. I realize that the gulf between appearance and reality has always been central your work, but now I’m feeling as if you’ve taken it to a higher level.

RO: I have been interested, for a while now, in making work about things that are ineffable. I use a wide variety of materials and processes as a means to express things and spaces that are very difficult to talk about. In the past I have likened my materials to spores, which I can replicate and mutate into objects, inviting the audience to use their imagination: to see the Rococo as modern; packing foam as a petri-dish; rubber balls, wire and Styrofoam beads as a nervous system. Recently, I have started to juxtapose all of these domestic materials, gleaned from places like Dollar Store and Home Deport with organic materials and traditional sculpture supplies. When I bring them together, a new reality emerges and the sculptures begin singing their own shrill quirky songs.

DR: You’ve stated that you strive to give form to essences. But my sense is that for you, essence means something quite different from what it might mean for a scientist. Essence for you seems to be more about the nature of how we perceive rather than the actual properties of the thing being perceived. Care to comment?

RO: Yes, it is more like the way I imagine a poet trying to describe an object or a place. Although at times, since I am working with actual materials and the physical processes, there is a kinship with the scientists since we have to observe and pay close attention to what is really happening with the materials and objects and not get too lost in the theories and what I imagine the work is saying.

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DR: Describe your working process.

RO: Oh boy…that’s difficult! (Long pause.) Often, it begins as a very simple sketch or short phrase jotted down in one of the many notebooks I keep and develop over time. Depending on when the entry goes into the notebook and what I am working on at the time, its gestation period can vary dramatically — from hours to years. I often rework and scour my notebooks at the beginning of a new cycle or when I get stuck on a particular work during the fabrication process. I certainly revisit them whenever I am about to begin an installation and when I go about titling the work. Next, depending on the idea entered into the notebook, I source the materials and begin fabrication. Occasionally, the process can be clean and neat and I proceed to the finish line in a timely manner. More likely, the piece evolves and at times even stalls only to later morph into something else. Sometimes I will recombine parts or materials from years past to make a work that gets at what I am searching for.

DR: Your work departs from any reality we know, yet it also seems well-grounded in things we do know – or things we think we know. Is that your intention, to operate in this gap?

RO: I have always been interested in exploring what is seen and unseen. A good example is my Architecture of a Scent series. That gap in the work and the awkward reality it portrays stems from the source of their construction being rooted in imagery that is equal parts real and imagined. I use this strange combination of the natural and the artificial to express the tensions that exist between the past and the future, technology and the body, the rational and the mystical and the individual and society.

DR: You mentioned Architecture of a Scent, a concept that involves giving form to smell: something that has no inherent shape. The title immediately calls to mind the sensory affliction known as synesthesia. How did you become interested in this?

RO: This is not something I believe I have or have ever studied. However, back in the ‘90s when I was making a lot of installation-based works, I was interested in making something that engaged more of the senses. I used scent in installations many times for its olfactory responses because I liked the way it can trigger memory so much faster than purely visual works. I even liked what it did for the work when the scent was only implied, like using cut onions. They could suggest tears and crying even though, phenomenologically speaking, they had begun to whither and dry out and had long since lost their actual power. So I guess the intermingling of sensory information these days comes more from my imagination. Again, it’s closer to poets’ methods and motives than to scientists’.

DR: People always liken your work to oceanic forms. Given the way a lot of it looks it seems impossible not to. Yet the association, at least from what you’ve said before, bothered you.

Why? RO: Well not always. I think it was more prevalent about five years ago when I was really interested in creating hybrids by crossing parts of the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms with certain sensibilities from the Rococo and Art Nouveau periods. During that time, the work, I agree, really spoke of

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oceanic forms. The coral-like forms, in particular, spoke beautifully to the nature of hybridization.

Coral, which is a really diverse order of the animal kingdom, is commonly mistaken for a plant, so when it came to creating hybrids, coral was an obvious choice. The oceanic association only bothered me when people stopped at this most obvious read of the work and didn’t take the time to see how it opened up into all the other associations I had built into the work.

DR: You’ve stated that you try to not create things from direct observation, but in this show there are at least two pieces that seem to have been directly inspired by observation. I’m thinking of Sometime around Sunset which strongly recalls the spires of Bryce Canyon, and Badlands, which resembles a piece of the Earth’s crust viewed from a high elevation. If so, does this represent a different working method? The pieces are quite unlike what I’ve seen from you in the past.

RO: The geography of Southern and Central Utah where Bryce Canyon is located has always had a very strong attraction for me. It is as if the flesh (i.e. the trees) has been scraped back to expose the bones of the place. Even the color of the rock has a way of changing my mood.

When I drive out into the red rock I get more and more excited the closer and closer I get to such places. So yes, the works are certainly inspired by these places; however they are not based on direct observation of a specific geographic location. Instead, it’s is more like a distillation all of the canyons I have visited.

Also, these works do represent a different method of working. They begin with subtraction, which is really a different sensibility from the collage and assemblage fabrication techniques I often use.

I carved these forms from blocks of foam a year or two ago and then I put them away for awhile.

Then, I covered them with layers and layers of resin and finally I surfaced them this summer and fall in time for the show.

DR: You’ve spoken of translating decorative 2-D patterns into 3-D forms. It feels like an impossible task. Clearly this is something you either have to imagine from scratch or else use some kind of computer-based imaging system to accomplish. How do you accomplish it?

RO: Around 2000 I got the idea to make a large chandelier-like sculpture. I had always wanted to make one but could never really justify what seemed like too much of an indulgence. Then I came up with the idea of substituting song for light. This felt significant enough – it gave me the permission to begin. At the time I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Looking back, it turned into a very important work for me titled February’s Song (it ended up being exhibited as part of the Eureka fellowship show at the UC Berkeley Art Museum). I often think about my exhibitions as being similar to a collection of poems. With this piece I realized it was more like working on a novel. I began by making 12 motorized songbirds — 12 wind instruments that sang and pecked away up in the 6-foot branches of the chandelier. They were activated with a motion sensor and choreographed electronically. When it came to the chandelier form, I wanted to make something grand, something in

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the tradition of the great European chandeliers. Since I hadn’t actually been to Europe I planned a trip and followed it up with a residency at Sculpture Space in upstate New York to fabricate the work since my studio in Emeryville wasn’t equipped with all of the metal working tools I needed to do the job.

During the residency, I began to realize I was at the beginning of a 5 to 10 year project. Up until then I had very little interest in all of that really decorative work I labeled the “Baroque”. Now I became obsessed. I started reading all about it, and ended up making another trip back to study, first hand, what I now realize is the Rococo.

While I was absorbing all of the decorative and applied arts of the 18th century, I began to notice that when all of these wonderful patterns were executed, they typically were carved relief or, when they did get three-dimensional, they only went as far as the planer. I couldn’t really find any examples of truly three-dimensional works that employed the more complex patterns that were present in so many of the period’s two-dimensional works.

Ultimately, I did end up making a few works that, I feel, use a more complex pattern than simply repeating a single motif to occupy three-dimensional space. However, what starts to happen is the pattern begins to get so complicated that it breaks down in a sense because it becomes too difficult to read and you lose the rhythm and lyrical qualities that where delivered two-dimensionally.

DR: What contemporary artists do you feel a close connection to?

RO: There are many artists in the Bay Area and a handful in Sacramento who I greatly respect and feel a very close connection to in the sense of having a continued dialogue about our work. But after having gotten so obsessed with Rococo and Art Nouveau, I seem to be more and more connected to works of the past. A good example is the Hauntology show at the Berkeley Art Museum. I thought it was really great. However, it was the Flowers of the Four Seasons show from the Clark collection that really resonated with me. Those screens of gold from the late Edo period that traditionally served as room dividers flicker beautifully between brilliantly decorated furnishing for the home and tender glimpses of the natural world. They are really engaging and affected my mood more than the works in Hauntology, which people might expect me to be more in sync with. I visited the shows with my wife and remember mentioning to her afterwards how great I felt having seen all of those works.

DR: What do you hope people get from looking at your work?

I like to leave people with questions –questions about what it means to be human.

David M. Roth is the editor and publisher of Squarecylinder.com, an online visual art magazine serving Northern California.

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Love, love, his and hers, if they’ve gone, where did they go?

Yesterday, yesterday I asked my eyes when will we see each other again?

And when you change the landscape is it with bare hands or with gloves?

How does rumor of the sky smell when the blue of water sings? — Pablo Neruda

IMAGE S

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(left) Architecture of a Scent: just outside of Tonopah, 2010, pvc pipe, wire, silicon carbide, flock and paint, 36 x 169 x 14

(above) Architecture of a Scent: just outside of Tonopah, detail

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(above) Mirror, Mirror, 2010, steel, wood, aluminum, resin, silicon carbide, paint, flock, 23 x 40 x 31

(left) Architecture of a Scent: frankincense and myrrh, 2012, garden lattice, mirrored mylar, wood, resin, paint, flock, 36 x 50 x 33

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(above) Old Plum, 2010, wire, foam, resin, pigment, floral fill and dissected cat toys, 51 x 32 x 41 (left) to begin, 2010, foam, rocks, silicon carbide, paint, 9 x 12 x 12

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(above) Infinitesimal Star, detail

(left) Infinitesimal Star, 2009, foam, resin, wood, steel, flock and paint, 51 x 32 x 25

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(above) beyond, 2012, paper and steel drywall corner tape mounted on wood, 26 x 44 x 12 (right) Badlands, 2010, foam, resin, wood, silicon carbide, flock and paint, 29 x 13 x 2.5 (preceeding pages 20 - 21, left to right): Infinitesimal Star; Architecture of a Scent: somewhere above Nashville, 2010, foam, resin, paint, flock, aluminum and wood, 29 x 57 x 28; Architecture of a Scent: just outside of Tonopah; parallel questions: silver and pink; beyond

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(above) dust to dust, 2011, wire mesh, cloth, plaster, sawdust, floral fill, paint, 7.5 x 14.5 x12

(left) sometime around sunset, 2010, foam, wood, resin, paint and flock, 31 x 18.5 x 5

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(above) Oz, 2009, plastic garden valve cover, foam, resin, wire, dissected calculator numbers, paint and flock, 41 x 27.5 x 17.5 (left) Oz, detail

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(above) parallel questions: silver and pink, 2010, foam, bamboo, wire, dingle balls, paint, 29 x 31 x 18

(right) parallel questions: silver and pink, detail

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Surrender, 2010, styrofoam cups, resin, wire, paint, metal flake, flock, cupboard liner 29

R ob e rt Ortbal Selected Solo Exhibitions 2010 different parts of remembering, JayJay Gallery, Sacramento, CA 2009 Benign: Growth and Neglect, Weigand Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA 2008 Neverland, Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, CA 2007 untold wrinkles, Jay-Jay, Sacramento, CA 2006 Oxygen’s Shadow, Cabrillo Gallery, Cabrillo College, Soquel, CA 2004 New Kingdom, The Oakland Museum of California at City Center, Oakland, CA 2001 seeing is believing, Pond, San Francisco, CA 1998 Behind One’s Eyes, 1078 Gallery, Chico, CA, catalog 1996 Lullaby, Four Walls, San Francisco, CA 1996 Between Red and Green, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA, catalog 1995 as above, so below, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA, catalog 1994 Taste and See, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA Selected Installations 2007 Wallworks III, Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, CA 2005 Eureka Fellowship Exhibition, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum 2004 above and beneath, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA 2001 February’s Song, Sculpture Space, Utica, NY 2000 Openings, 9-1-1 Media Arts Center, Seattle, WA 1999 What is Art for?, The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA 1998 Fertile Waste, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO 1997 Openings, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1996 Host, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1995 Navigate: breakfast and desire, AS IS at California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA 1994 Stones: The weight of ripening., Contract Design Center, San Francisco, CA 1993 Black/White? No neophyte, Opts Art Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1992 at the end of desire, Seeing Time Series, Kala Institute, Berkeley, CA Selected Group Exhibitions 2011 Beyond Tradition: Art Legacies - 75th Anniversary, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA 2010 Blurring the Line, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA 2007 Work-A-Day, Blank Space Gallery, Oakland, CA 2007 Watershed, Snyderman-Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2006 Chapter Two: A show of objects, New York Design Center, New York, NY 2006 Berkeley-Saki Exchange Exhibition, Saki, Japan 2005 M Theory, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2005 Ornament: The Art of Desire, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art 2003 Needle Art: A postmodern sewing circle, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut

Creek, CA 2002 Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA 2000 Knowing you, Knowing Me, The Lab, San Francisco, CA, catalog 1999 Needle Art, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA 1998 20th Anniversary Exhibition, S.F.M.O.M.A. Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1997 Stirred Not Shaken, Refusalon, San Francisco, CA, catalog 1996 Natural Phenomena, Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA 1994 Cross Currents, Holy Names College, Oakland, CA 1993 Pro Arts Annual, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA, catalog 1992 The Object is Bound, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1991 North by Northeast, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA 1990 Introductions, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA

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Commissions 2010 Flora and Fauna, City of Emeryville Bus Shelters, Emeryville, CA 2008 Reveries: Water and Sky, University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA 2007 I am you, he is she, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA 2005 Pollinate, Bath Clubs, Miami Beach, FL Selected Reviews Baker, Kenneth. “Is Small Beautiful”, San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 1997 _____. “Two New Outlooks on Conceptual Art”, San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 1996 _____. “Exhibitions: Pacific Dreams”, San Francisco Chronicle, March 18, 1995 Barlet, Jean. “The connections between private and public art create current exhibit at Skyline Art Gallery”, Pacifica Tribune Arts Correspondent, Mercury News.com, Feb, 3, 2011 Bonetti, David. “There is a ‘there’ at Oakland show” San Francisco Chronicle, March 27, 2002 _____. “Fresh names, stale perspective” San Francisco Examiner, July 20, 1990 Buck, David. Ornamentation: The Art of Desire, Artweek, March 2006, Volume 37 Issue 2 Cheng, DeWitt. “Model Magic”, East Bay Express, Sept. 10, 2008, Vol 30 Issue 49 _____. “Uncategorical Imperatives at Kala Gallery”, East Bay Express, November 24, 2010 Cohn, Terri. “Needle Art”, New Art Examiner, September, 1999 Dalkey, Victoria. “Fall Preview: On & Off the Wall”, Sacramento Bee, September 23, 2007 _____. “A Profession of Art”, Sacramento Bee, April 25, 2008 _____. “Engaging mystery and metaphor”, Sacramento Bee, Friday, December 3, 2010 Dunn, Edward. “Ortbal, wrinkles and all”, Sacramento News and Review, Nov 8, 2007, Volume 19 Elliot Sherman, Ann. “Color Scales”, Metro, May 2, 1996 Fahey, Anna. “Spotlight: Robert Ortbal” Seattle Weekly, August 10, 2000 Hall, Emily. “Drive-By Art” The Stranger Seattle, August 31, 2000, Vol. 9, No. 50 Helfand, Glen. “Stirred Not Shaken”, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 19, 1997 Goldsmith, Meredith. “New Kingdom” Artweek, Oct, 2004 #35 Issue 8 Maclay, Cathrine. “The Light Fantastic”, San Jose Mercury News, April 12,1993 Meeker, Cheryl. “High Concept Hand Work”, www.stretcher.org, November 2001 Morrison, Barbara. “Knowing You, Knowing Me”, Artweek, May/June, #30, 2000 Roth, David M., Artist Profile, Art Ltd, Nov/Dec, 2008 _____.”Robert Ortbal @JayJay” SquareCylinder.com, December 15, 2010 Sylva, Bob. “Vision, unclouded”. Sacramento Bee, December 2, 2007 Vaughn, Michael J. “Deck the Walls”, The Wave Magazine, December, 2005 Selected Catalogs (Chronologically Arranged) Benign: Growth and Neglect, Weigand Gallery, Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, CA Text by Paul Bridenbaug, DeWitt Cheng, Maw Shein Win untold wrinkles, Jay-Jay, Sacramento, CA, 2007, Text by Diana L. Daniels Eureka, The Eureka Fellowship Awards 2002-20004, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Text by Constance M. Lewallen Being There: 45 Oakland Artists, The Oakland Museum of California, 2002 Text by Philip Linhares Knowing You, Knowing Me, The Lab, San Francisco, CA 2000 Text by Dean Smith, Behind One’s Eyes, Gallery 1078, Chico, CA 1998 Text by Lisa Martel and Mary Stump Between Red and Green, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, 1996 Text by Sheila D. Pickett as above, so below, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA 1995 Text by Jeff Nathanson, Sandra Rodgers and Timothy T. Taylor Fellowships - Artists Residency’s - Awards 2009 Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR 2004 Eureka Fellowship – Fleishhacker Foundation, San Francisco, CA 2001 Sculpture Space, Utica, NY 1992 Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Edgecomb, ME 1990 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

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Ackno wledg ements California State University, Stanislaus

Dr. Hamid Shirvani, President Dr. James T. Strong, Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs Mr. Daryl Joseph Moore frsa, Founding Dean, College of the Arts

Department of Art

Richard Savini, Chair, Professor Dean De Cocker, Associate Professor Jessica Gomula, Associate Professor David Olivant, Professor Gordon Senior, Professor Dr. Roxanne Robbin, Professor Dr. Staci Scheiwiller, Assistant Professor Jon Kithcart, Equipment Technician II Meg Broderick, Administrative Support Assistant II

University Art Gallery

Dean De Cocker, Director

Robert Ortbal wishes to extend a special thank you to Dean DeCocker for his invitation and help with the exhibition, Kristina Stamper for the catalog layout, design and photography, David M. Roth for the interview, Beth Jones and Lynda Jolley at JayJay, the gallery and installation interns at CSU Stanislaus, Kevin Ptak, Gabrielle Beniston, my colleagues and dedicated students at ASL during the winter break, and as always Mary and Hank.

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