Constellations Lines and Pictures 2014

Constellations Lines and Pictures Curated, and with an essay by, Peter Dykhuis

Projects by 11 FACULTY of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design

David Chung Larry Cressman Seth Ellis Roland Graf Osman Khan Heidi Kumao John Marshall Anne Mondro Cynthia Pachikara Robert Platt Michael Rodemer

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Presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Constellations, from January 17 to February 14, 2014 in the Slusser Gallery at the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

In the summer of 2013 the exhibition’s curator, Peter Dykhuis, Director of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Nova Scotia visited the studios of 11 faculty members from the Stamps School. The resulting exhibition and accompanying essay by Peter Dykhuis is intended to create a conversation investigating the lines that, as with constellations, connect visual information (and meaning) with physical, geographical, social, political and spiritual ‘pictures’.

Design and photography by Carl Greene

University of Michigan Regents Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor Julia Donovan Darlow, Ann Arbor Laurence B. Deitch, Bloomfield Hills Shauna Ryder Diggs, Grosse Pointe Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms Andrea Fischer Newman, Ann Arbor Andrew C. Richner, Grosse Pointe Park Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio

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Politicus Major: political, cultural and social borderlines

Compared to astronomical and geological time, our contemporary night sky is but a recent blink of shared viewing experience across many cultures in both hemispheres. Pictures are conjured, dots connected, stories are told but shaped by the cultural subjectivity of the viewers.

This exhibition intends to create a conversation of sorts that investigates the lines that, as with constellations, connects visual information (and meaning) with physical, geographical, social, political and spiritual ‘pictures’.

Facing page Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps: The Telescope

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Michael Rodemer Rapprochement 2006 revised 2008 bricks, motors, microcontroller, sensor, mixed media 28” x 12” x 6”

Michael Rodemer’s Rapprochement is, in scale and

over time. Rodemer originally produced Rapprochement

materials, one of the more modest pieces in this

with Berlin, the city and its former divisive, Cold War

exhibition. But I think of it as the hub, the engine,

wall, as subject matter but has expanded his visual

the metronome, the heartbeat of the entire curatorial

metaphor to include any context where reconciliation,

project. Two square bricks grind against each other,

cooperation and harmonization reduce friction between

beginning at the start of the exhibition all bumpy and

opposing forces. Indeed, from Rodemer’s point of view,

jangly, yet slowly and surely mutually wearing down

all sharp edges should be ground into the dust of time.

their sharp edges, finding a calmer, smoother groove

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Osman Khan Indus Truck Works 2013 Ford E-350 Truck, Vinyl 17’x8’x10’

Osman Khan’s singular line drawing on paper is too

the colonial past, that continue to bristle with animosity

eccentric to be the result of personal expression or a

towards each other. Yet, as a citizen of North America,

formally executed exploration. In my first impression,

living in a society of supposed accommodation, however

it certainly looked like something meaningful, possibly

one that harbors deep suspicions about the Muslim

cartographic. And, indeed, it is. This single line is

East, Khan seeks his own vehicular rapprochement

a representation of the Radcliffe Line of 1947, the

and engagement in the guise of a re-purposed former

partitioning border imposed by imperial British colonial

U-Haul truck. Still sporting orange and black traces of its

interests that defines the line between modern-day India

former life as a generic rental fleet vehicle, Khan is slowly

and Pakistan. Khan has provided a set of drafting tools to

covering it with vinyl-cut imagery that refers to the highly

accompany this drawing to underscore that the line is the

decorated and personalized transport vehicles of Pakistan.

result of a human hand commissioned to segregate peoples

Cheekily out of place, Khan crosses a cultural boundary or

by ethnic, religious and cultural orientation.

two by taking his project on the roadways of America, most recently on a trip to Los Angeles to support an exhibition,

Rodemer recognized the Berlin Wall as a divisive and

and back again. His visual record of the round trip

volatile Cold War political border that, fortunately, did

provides profound and sometimes hilarious juxtapositions

break down in time. But there is little that Khan can do to

of his hybrid cultural transporter and freeway interloper

seek a similar rapprochement between India and Pakistan,

within iconic American landscapes.

two nuclear-armed countries, divided by a hangover from

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David Chung Crossing 2014 Single channel video Color / 5 minutes

David Chung’s Crossing is a new video projection piece

with the accompaniment of a solo instrument, the ‘words’

of streetscapes in South Korea with images of sidewalks,

in “Jupiter’s Moons” are abstracted and improvisational

reflections, urban boundaries and human movement in

with the performative emphasis placed on their sounds.

social space. These are interspersed with secretly shot

In Chung’s work, contemporary visual art and music

images of pedestrians crossing a bridge along the Taedong

are unifying cultural expressions that, without words,

River in Pyongyang, North Korea. Whereas the imagery

transcend time, social space and political borders.

from South Korea is human scaled and warm, the footage

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captured in North Korea is of the larger collective with

Chung’s work identifies the deep rift between North

a more distanced, cooler, point of view – a statement in

and South Korea; it is the third political boundary line

its own right. The video imagery is paired with a musical

represented in this exhibition. As with the former Berlin

composition by Jin-hi Kim titled “Jupiter’s Moons” with

Wall in the Cold War context and the current Radcliffe

vocals sung by Kang Kwon-soon. Building on a traditional

Line, these are borders defined and hardened by sometime

form of poetry recital where the words are often sung

twitchy-fingered nuclear weaponry.

Heidi Kumao Degrees of Freedom 2014 Video projection on books

Coincidently, Heidi Kumao’s video projection and

women who represent an enlightened future in Kumao’s

installation is conceptually located in Iran, another

worldview, those that defy strict, patriarchal orthodoxy.

country in the news due to its potential nuclear ambitions.

But the boundary crossing in Kumao’s work is in

In time, we can only hope for rapprochement at the

gender politics. The narrative content of Kumao’s video

many political, cultural, religious, social and gender-

installation focuses on young Iranian women who enter

based levels of conflict in the world today. Leave it

their private living spaces, remove their garments required

to artists such as Rodemer, Khan, Chung and Kumao

to maintain modesty in public places and, collectively,

to both ‘illustrate’ the issues at hand but to also

read books deemed to be illegal by the conservative

suggest creative segues out of destructive endgames

religious patriarchs in their community. It is the young

–by making thoughtful, critically engaging art.

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Imagis Storia: constellations and narrative connections

My knowledge of astronomy is limited and, in the night sky, I can pick out the Big Dipper and a few other popular constellations. As for the rest of the billions of stars in the sky, I would believe most anything if someone linked together a string of twinkly things and told me that it was meaningful.

Facing page Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps: The Delightful Ribbons

Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps 2014 window tint, Komatex, paper each window (of 12) 120” x 55”

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Which is what Seth Ellis has done. In the twelve upper

the construction of semiotic codes of sorts. But Ellis takes

level windows of the Gallery, Ellis has installed black

it to another level by inventing horoscope narratives to

vinyl sheets with holes that allow light through, creating

accompany his constellations, adding an entirely new layer

twelve representations of faux constellations viewable

of conjured meaning. It is one thing to make star patterns

‘correctly’ from the mezzanine level outside of the Gallery.

into images; it is another to have the images function as the

These constellations, pictograms of named things, are

source of speculative texts about human behavior that is

pointed and cheeky in their own way, certainly a play on

tied into cosmic, astrological cycles. What is one to believe?

Cynthia Pachikara and Judy Bozone Vertical Horizont(tal) variation 2 2013 light, sound and shadow Installation 08:00 minutes

The video installation Vertical Horizon(tal) by Cynthia

O’Hare Airport, often asking the listener to, “maintain 5,000”.

Pachikara and Judy Bozone is all about layers. Layers of

The fifth layer within the work consists of the random

projected images fused onto one screen area that is then

interruptions that the viewing public brings into the work

interrupted by the presence of the bodies of the viewing

as they block images from one projector beam, allowing

public. There are three video points of view in this work:

another image layer to be revealed. The video explores the

traces of streetlight as it traipses through the interior of a

boundaries of “coming and going” through specialized points

moving car; headlight patterns on a busy roadway filmed

of view, poetic pictures and sensorial engagement.

from above; and a slowly revolving image of a starry night sky.

A fourth layer, a sonic space composed by Bozone, evokes a

In Ellis’ and Pachikara’s projects, one layer of creative

sense of place by interpreting Pachikara’s pictorial layers in

componentry builds a foundation of sorts but relies on

the form of low sounds, repeating rhythms, and sparkling

narratives or visual stories provided in the neighboring

chords. Adding movement through specificity/exactitude -

layer(s) to generate poetic resonance or dissonance. Indeed,

and the only voice unable to be re-produced on an acoustic

the creative sum total is far greater than that of its individual

instrument - is the control tower radio from Chicago’s

parts and single layers.

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Machinis Socialus: social and political lines of engagement

While many people engaged in technologically driven industries are earnest about the world of functional machines that they create, artists often treat machines as creative playthings and gleefully repurpose cutting edge technologies to ‘do stuff’ that they were never intended for. Roland Graf, a member of the consortium Assocreation, and John Marshall, of the hybrid design studio rootoftwo each mischievously raid the parts bins of technological culture and generate public artworks that have no use value beyond engaging people in physical play or social and political contemplation.

Facing page Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps: The Turtle

Assocreation Solar Pink Pong interactive installation with moving mirror, motion sensor, solar panels 13” x 16” x 65”

Assocreation’s Solar Pink Pong is slated for installation

surveillance systems and disarmed it for nothing more

in public, urban spaces. Mounted on utility poles or

than social pleasure. Swords into ploughshares, indeed.

building sides overlooking pedestrian sidewalks, the consortium’s solar powered piece is fully loaded with the latest surveillance and tracking technology. Rather than spy on passersby and record activities and movements, Solar Pink Pong actively intercepts the walking members of the public by reflecting a ball of pink sunlight ahead of pedestrian’s footfalls, teasingly engaging them to kick around this mysterious orb of light that appears from nowhere. In making Solar Pink Pong whimsical in nature and a gift to the unsuspecting passersby, Assocreation has taken technology associated with drone weaponry and

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rootoftwo, LLC (John Marshall & Cezanne Charles) Whithervane: a neurotic, early worrying system Assisted by: Matt Rowe, Jason Prasad, David Brusstar and Alexander Watanabe.

The five headless chickens of rootoftwo’s Whithervane

will point in the direction away from the source of the

are slated for installation at various sites in the town

bad-news: a rocket launch from Pyongyang and the

of Folkstone in August 2014. Riffing on the history

chickens turn their backs on 39°2’N 125°4’E; trouble

of weather vanes that represent majestic roosters,

in Tehran, and they whirl away from 35°4’N 51°2’E.

rootoftwo’s headless chickens are anything but noble. All five simultaneously react to “bad news”, that is, negative

With wit, whimsy and humor, both artists emasculate

and fear-inducing stories culled from the Reuters news

technology that has military pedigree. Indeed,

feed. Using software of their own design, rootoftwo’s

negative technological energy embedded in this work

system assesses the degree of fearful negativity that a

is transposed into positive social and cultural capital

breaking story will have in a color value. Low-grade

—something that helps to raises public consciousness

bad-news stories light up the lower green-blue spectrum

and engagement. It is then that a headless chicken can

of each chicken, increasing in intensity through yellow,

become a figurehead of sorts.

orange and ultimately red. As well, all five chickens

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Natura Conundrus: nature/culture and lines of observation and hybridization

Facing page Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps: The Ship Full of Heroes

Larry Cressman Land Lines 2013 installation drawing Prairie Dock, graphite and matte medium, glue, wire, shellac, pins 68” x 192” x 6” (length is variable)

From a distance, I was not quite sure what I was looking

pieces also present the micro dramas of figure/ground

at on the wall of Larry Cressman’s studio. Perhaps it

relationships between pinned twig and resulting shadow.

was a drawing on the surface itself with subtle graphite inflections creating a hierarchy of visual lines. As I

Fields and grounds are fitting metaphors when considering

approached closer, at a certain point, the work ‘popped’

the ‘politics of the materials’ in Cressman’s practice.

into 3D revealing that the lines were bits of twigs and

Ignoring art/craft/hardware supply stores, he harvests

bush branches pinned to, but floating off of, the wall,

his raw material from bushes and plant stalks in urban

with each organic, linear component creating a soft

fields then carefully builds an inventory of twigs and

shadow below. A visual weave of woody line and shadow,

branches, elbows and shoots, that become the linear

Cressman’s works perversely riff off of Modernist

components of his meditative, elegant, visual fields.

monochromatic color field paintings and drawings. His

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Anne Mondro Title: Mend 2014 40”H x 56”W x 12”D Felt, wax, wire, quartz, steel

Anne Mondro’s series of felted, bone-like objects from

wrappings and prosthetic supports that create dynamic

her series titled Adapt embody at a human scale a

material tensions between the organic structure and its

vocabulary similar to the linear, twiggy components

metallic add-ons. Look closely, however, and observe that

found in Cressman’s wall works. Each piece by Mondro

the metallic components are woven/knitted together from

looks familiar; perhaps it is something from a 19

single strands of fine metal. Perhaps this is a host/parasite

century medical curio cabinet. But there are also metallic

relationship active within a hybrid reliquary of sorts.

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insertions that fill voids as well as odd little extensions,

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Robert Platt (Part 1) Lunettiere

2014 pigment and oil on canvas 96” x 72” (Part 2) Eidolon #2

2014 wood, canvas and various media 100” x 115” x 115”

For sport, Robert Platt likes to explore caves, go

that the viewer must physically insert themselves into to

underground and get inside of things. It should come

visually acquire another perceptual angle into the work.

as no surprise, then, that his paintings equate the inside of the human cranium with a cave of sorts.

Cressman, Mondro and Platt each play with nature/

Not quite the ‘cave’ of Platonic, philosophic lore, but

culture conundrums as part of the subject matter

a psychologically charged interior space transposed

of their work. Cressman makes geometric, cultural

onto his canvasses with colorful, expressive and multi-

objects out of gentle, natural materials; Mondro’s

layered and multi-material paint applications.

body-referential organic objects are hybridized with jewel-like metallic insertions and wrappings; Platt’s

But Platt’s paintings are only the starting point within

paintings, viewed through secondary, pre-modern optical

an experiential context that questions what is ‘real’

devices, questions how we observe paintings naturally

in the sensorial, visual realm. To test what the many

and then re-view them with rudimentary lenses. In our

readings of his paintings might be, Platt has created a

day of Hubble telescopes to explore the edges of the

yurt or teepee-like optical viewing hut in the Gallery

visible cosmos or full-body scanners to create detailed

space that is equipped with camera-obscura lenses that

images of micro slices of the body, these artists take

are focused on his wall work. He thus creates a linear,

great pleasure in working with old-school, hands-on,

dialectical tension between what he has inscribed on the

empirically driven sensorial readings of the natural

wall as an artist and what can also be experienced by the

world as evidence that there is still much to explore –

viewing public from an interior point of view of a portable

and know – about our immediate corporeal existence.

structure sheathed with faux fur and animal hides – one

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These are the constellations of meaning that I have lined up from the bodies of work that eleven faculty members of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design shared with me over a three-day visit in September of 2013. The artists are not the stars in these stories; it is their work. Indeed, specific pieces selected from their varied practices do line up into clusters of conceptual affinity, collectively building on each other to generate conversations that also play off of each other.

And this is where the stories begin.

Peter Dykhuis – December 2013

Seth Ellis Dead Star Maps: The Floating Island

University of Michigan | Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design | 2000 Bonisteel Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2069 | www.art-design.umich.edu