Holiday Shop-O-Rama Extravaganzal

Annual Art Sale offers eclectic ideas for presents

The third annual geek’s

Commentary by Jeff Dixon Writer, critic and self-proclaimed geek

Volume 11, No. 1Volume 13, No. 4 September 2004 ISSUE • 5 December 2006 ISSUE • 9 THE ARTS MAGAZINE OF THE ART STUDIO, INC. APRIL 2005exans have their “Twang,”the distinctive vocal style that distinguishes them from people from other states.“Twang”also refers to the guitar sounds of Texas R&B and country. At the Art Museum of Southeast Texas,“Twang”is a group show of contemporary Texas sculpture featuring work by a dozen artists. Texas is both Western and Southern,cotton and cowboys,and a multitude of clashing cultures.If The piece consists of an automatic tennis serve machine that fires a series of balls (each labeled “Joey”) against a wall on which is a large Argyle pattern that may or may not be a net.The machine is labeled “Playmate”and the balls are fired with monotonous regularity,with the gallery walls echoing a repetitive thud thud thud,like the Dada soundtracks of Kurt Schwitters. The “Joey”of the title refers to Joey Mussacchio,a childhood friend of the artist who is now dead. Does the lifeless “Playmate”long for someone with whom to play? It seems to connect with the quintessentially American past-time — a simple the balls hit the wall and bounce randomly away as a museum guard chased after them.This viewing emphasized a sense of “play,”with the machine,like a rambunctious child,teasing its reluctant “playmate.” The same piece,but two games and,therefore, two different pieces. Even though the “Playmate”is inanimate, Powers has created a performance piece reminiscent of the 1960s Fluxus group,whose creations existed in the reactions of the viewer. Powers plays with our emotions and delicately balances the the joys of childhood with the loss of innocence.T Distinctly DiverseDIFFERENT APPROACHES U NITE ‘TEXAS TWO DOZEN’ gift guide there is one thing that defines game of catch. Another piece that demands viewer participaTexas,it is its indefinability. Visitors to the opening witnessed the balls tion is Justin Kidd’s “In and Out Box.” “Twang,”like the state that bouncing off two walls and back into the machine, Consisting of a crudely constructed mailbox links these artists,incorporates a completing a never-ending solitary game of catch. hanging on the wall,visitors to the exhibit are invitplethora of styles and forms. The piece had a melancholy quality that reflected ed to “mail”a postcard from the Czech Republic

Among the strongest pieces on display is “Love- both the loss of a childhood friend and of childhood Joey,”a study of friendship,loneliness and loss by itself. Michael Powers. However,visitors at a later date may have seen See TWANGon page 11 Among the works featured in “TWANG: Contemporary Sculpture from Texas,” on display through Sept. 26 at the Art Museum of

Southeast Texas, are, clockwise from left, “E.B.”by Erick Swenson, “Museum Bench” by Chris Sauter, “Two Paintings on MAKING AN a Rock” by Bill Davenport and “Sell Me Something Brown” by Franco EXHIBITION OF THEMSELVES PAGE 7

Mondini-Ruiz. INSIDE: LISA REINAUER: JUDGE AND JURY, HOT PIG, Review and photos by AND MORE Andy

Coughlan See GEEKon page 15