Signs of Change by University of Texas at San Antonio

SIGNS OF CHANGE Bodo Korsig and Catherine Lee

CURATED by Dennis Olsen

Signs of Change | Bobo Korsig and Catherine Lee

This publication has been published in conjunction with the exhibition, Signs of Change, curated by Dennis Olsen at the Satellite Space, The University of Texas at San Antonio. March 3 - 20, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-9831130-2-7 Editor: Scott Sherer Contributors: Dennis Olsen, Adriana Miramontes Olivas, Scott Sherer Designer: Cornelia Swann Photography courtesy of artists.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by: Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992

Printed on recycled paper.

SIGNS OF CHANGE Bodo Korsig and Catherine Lee

CURATED by Dennis Olsen ESSAYS by Dennis Olsen Adriana Miramontes Olivas & Scott Sherer

BODO KORSIG

Opposite page: Hidden Mind, unique cast aluminum, approx. 62.5”x 58.5”x 4”, 2006 Above: My Brain is Leaking, unique cast aluminum, approx. 70” x 52” x 4”, 2006

CATHERINE LEE

Opposite page: Ellis Island, cast bronze with patina, 23.5” x 11” x 1.75”, 1997 Above: Coast, color woodcut on Korean Kozo handmade paper, 38.5”x 26.5” paper size, 42”x 29.5” framed, 1988

CURATOR | Dennis Olsen

In Signs of Change, the works of Catherine Lee and Bodo Korsig present contrasting yet complementary ways of creating iconic imagery that alludes to human activities and preoccupations through abstract language. In the case of Catherine Lee, the viewer is immediately aware of the physicality of the materials — bronze, raku, cast iron, handmade paper, and glass, all informed by Lee’s unerring sense of color and patina. Presented in rows and columns, Alice suggests collected artifacts with vaguely human forms, and is, in fact, an homage to the artist’s octogenarian mother and the events of her long life. In contrast, Iron Ice, displays shards that evoke a more edgy iconography, that of blades, or shields, made of rusted cast iron with an inset of glass, suggesting artifacts of another age. Although not intended as a modular installation, her individual small bronzes from the Alphabet series complement each other as the viewer can imagine Lee pushing each piece to explore new compositional solutions and colorations. In these works, there are echoes of early modernist sculpture, and the interlocking forms bear a curious resemblance to the breathtaking Inca stonework of Machu Pichu. Whereas Lee’s faceted sculptures bring to mind human forms, shields, and perhaps 8

weapons, Bodo Korsig’s iconic forms are invariably composed of flat shapes that suggest organic and neurological phenomena. Although minimal and abstract, these curious shapes lead the viewer to imagine cereberal synapses, bacteria, or malevolent viruses. One cannot escape the overt connections to the mind/brain present in titles such as Where Can I Get a New Brain? or Can You Feel What I Feel? With such phrases, often incorporated within the images themselves, as in the giant woodcut, How is Your Life?, Korsig opens a dialog by literally asking us what we think while, at the same time, telling us his thoughts. Korsig imagines and abstractly represents the kind of brain activity that might be taking place under extreme conditions such as fear, violence, pressure, or death. His preoccupation with the relationship of the brain and the mind is evident in a diptych from the year 2000 entitled, Erase Your Past, and again in his 2005 wall piece of the same name, in which he eerily parallels screen writer Charlie Kaufman’s mind games in the 2005 film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Photo: Korsig’s installation

ESSAY | Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Scott Sherer Signs of Change presents two internationally recognized artists, Catherine Lee and Bodo Korsig, whose pieces suggest the ever-changing condition of human thought and action. In Lee’s work, abstract relationships are as variable and vibrant as the natural environment and humanity itself. Korsig’s pieces comment on the immanent imbalances in existence, where not only exteriors change but interiors are also movements of neurons, organs, and memory. Catherine Lee’s Ellis Island, Alice, Northumberland, Iron Ice and Bodo Korsig’s Metamorphoses, Hidden Mind, My Brain is Leaking and How Is Your Life? utilize a variety of media and sizes in a visual compound of shapes, forms, and colors that suggest the intricacies of conceptual and actual modes of existence.

composed of brilliant red marks that run from top to bottom or that occupy a specific area in the center or to one of the sides. Inspired by the discourse of the family portrait, names such as Teresa,

Catherine Lee’s Alice, composed of small ceramic elements, is monumental when seen from afar and intimate when seen up close. While coming together to form the whole, each element is a singular entity, Photo: Lee’s Alice installation (detail).

Photo: Lee’s Alice installation. 9

Bud, and Pete are inscribed below some of the pieces. Alice carries the name of Lee’s mother and the aura of blood ties, both actual and metaphorical. Like human relationships, understanding Alice’s specific characteristics is variable and dependent upon context, whether private or shared. 1 Lee’s Ellis Island and Tarbert are heavy and abstract but serene and peaceful. The land and rivers near her Texas studio inspire Iron Ice, a composition of 32 elements of cast-iron and glass. With its earth tones, this work suggests the continuation of the ancient into the present. Bodo Korsig’s works also reflect an amalgamation of natural mysteries and cultural history, of involuntary and voluntary reactions that create lived experience. Korsig is “provoked by the artistic conflict of those neurological and cognitive processes taking place in man that it is difficult to record purely scientifically.”2 In Hidden Mind, Korsig presents the viewer with a series of aluminum sculptures in black tones that are playful and organic, engaging with the shadows cast both on themselves and on the gallery’s walls. Hidden Mind unites three nuclei with radiating spirals as if three arenas of thought have come together to produce ideas that fly out into the world. Like the interaction of conscious and unconscious processes, Hidden Mind suggests processes of transition and engagement. Korsig explains, “Our brain sends certain emotions, but it is fascinating that you try to control them. You fight with yourself. You need to convince your brain not to feel fear, not to be afraid.” 3

of a “multimodal ensemble,” How is Your Life? contains words and images that interact to suggest a message. When asked about the identity of the figures in this work, Korsig explains, “That is the interesting part. Everybody sees something else. It’s a human shape but for some people it is not. It could be something totally different. It has to do with your knowledge, where you come from and your experiences.” 4 Both My Brain is Leaking and Erase Your Past recall Terry Winters’ Graphic Primitives, as Korsig creates with geometric patterns and biomorphic shapes. Having lived through the dictatorship in the former East Germany, Korsig argues that one cannot erase memories, for one must “store” them in order to continue life. Indeed, Korsig’s Erase Your Past may be a counterpoint to Lee’s Alice — influences, inspirations, and potential understandings are simultaneously hidden but dramatically present. From their surroundings, their loved ones, their pasts and their presents, Lee’s and Korsig’s works reflect upon the functions of the biological and social organism. Signs of Change demonstrates the interactions of the human body in its diverse extension into the world.

1 Catherine Lee, interview by Adriana Miramontes

Olivas, personal email, 12 January 2011. 2 Bodo Korsig, “Brainpower,” 2007

http://www.korsig.com. 3 Bodo Korsig, interview by Adriana Miramontes

In our contemporary global society, neither verbal nor visual information is enough to do the job, and with the inspiration of Gunther Kress’s discussion 10

Olivas, Skype, 18 January 2011. 4 Ibid.