Stretch Marks

I left Jay-Tard trying on a pair of my shorts

and headed for the opening of Young Blood's new space.

Ran into Jenn Brown, who is one half of the team responsible for the design of the new boutique space, which looks really great.

It was packed, the space is incredible, not so much a step up from the Grant Park location as an effing leap. This shop could be the Helix Athens transplants have been missing.

The art wasn't quite as exciting.

Jessica Gonacha "Moving Mountains"

Jessica Gonacha had a series of paintings claiming to explore the relationships between people and the environment and themselves. But more accurately they reflected her stated motto "life is not to be taken seriously." Going further, Gonacha recommends you "tenaciously fill your days with satisfaction."

Sometimes it's better not to have an artist statement...

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Magnified Moments Series: Winter Woes"

Gonacha was shown with the prolific Valerie Taylor Pensworth, whose series "Magnified Moments" paired ink illustrations representing connected memories or contrasting views of arguments within the artist.

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Magnified Moments Series: S.P."

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Magnified Moments Series: Love Seat"

This piece made nice use of the format.

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Biding Time"

Other works were more cursory. The title Biding Time seemed an appropriate name for a show celebrating the frivolity of light hearted paintings

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Live Wire"

and unfunny jokes.

The gallery began to feel a bit like a continuation of the boutique. Maybe its a telling change that the boutique is now the first room entered in the Highland space whereas it flanked the exhibition space in Grant Park. Marketing ploy perhaps but it sets a tone.

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Sentimental Secrets"

Pensworth's blue lady pieces were pleasing to the eye

Valerie Taylor Pensworth "Greatest Expectations"

especially this one.

Jessica Gonacha and Valerie Pensworth "In Between the Rain"

The artists collaborated on two larger sculptural pieces cut from mat board and paper.

Tracy trying to focus despite the heat

this gizmo seems to have gone largely neglected...


The pieces were highly detailed and ambitious in craft but remained aloof.

Then again, nestled in the Highlands, this is going to look rad on the nursery wall of some cute blond kid named Dakota.

Go check out the new space and shop in the artist stocked boutique. The show "In Between the Rain" up until May 31st 2008.

Birthday Suits

Exactly one year ago today, I decided to stop complaining about the lack of art blogs dedicated to the lively Atlanta art scene, and start writing one. A good deal of anxiety went along with this, as I am not a writer, not a critic, not all that Internet savvy, and generally disinterested in what I have to say. But I have a habit of carrying a camera around and a great deal of hope and pride for the artists in the city, and so, there you have it.


What surprised me in all of this was how much I actually began to enjoy the blog. It's sort of a ball and chain (though completely self imposed and therefore one gets no sympathy) which forces me to pause a little longer to consider the art I see and through the blog I have gained a greater awareness of, dare I say the much fussed over word, community.

So happy one year to Local E, this gives me great excuse to drin - err - celebrate. And I figure with this post I can upload whatever I please, so here are some pictures of Junior (who obviously grew up with a camera in his face often enough to now enjoy the attention) and Daddy #2.

We went hiking, it started raining (story of my life), we hung out under a fallen tree.

Jay was tired and dozed off.

Video No Input

Here's a quick look at the current "frontiers of art of technology"


Made my way otp to Spruill Gallery for the opening of "Breaking New Ground," a show bringing together artists working with new forms of technology and professors from Georgia Tech who are exploring "methods and advances in technology to create a new and fresh artistic vocabulary."

Kathryn Reffi "Color Recordings: Day 3 and 4" 2006 60"x100" oil on panel

The show is a great experience, part science fair, part design, and part experimental art. True to nature, I was most drawn to the works by professional artists, interested to see how artist's are using technology (digital imaging, projectors, computer software) to either expand the possibilities in their work or use it to reach an idea previously unattainable.

Kathryn Reffi's paintings are jaw-dropping; meticulous, massive, color theory to the ninth degree, the paintings pulse with abstracted life. But what makes them really fascinating, is that each painting, well, actually is worth reading the description in its entirety:


Reffi's paintings greet the visitor at the door of the gallery and set the stage by exemplifying a process in which technology is aiding artists in attaining something previously incomprehensible.

"Nest" by Carla Diana involves spheres containing LED lights and a unique RIFD tag. When a sphere is placed in one of the three indentions in the white platform, a different ambient sound is created. The viewer is able to interact with the piece and audibly transform the space by interchanging spheres. At one point a guy removed all of the spheres and the room fell very silent, it was an odd sensation, like a life form had been silenced, something kind of disturbing. Someone else quickly added back a sphere to bring life back to the space, or to at least add their own mark upon it.

"Nest" was shown along side Phillip Galanter's pieces dealing with Generative Systems, which seemed fitting since the back lit "light box drawings" implied their own sense of vibrations.

Again, as a common theme in this show, it's actually worth it (and necessary) to read the statement:


Say what? Interesting to place these on light boxes, a bit like viewing something under the microscope.

On my quest to meet the other Atlanta art bloggers, I made the acquaintance of Miss Il Faut Cultiver Notre Jardin, Susannah Darrow, who has a great summary of the show here.

Gil Weinberg's "Robotic Musicianship Project"

"-has digital technology truly innovated and enriched the expressive, emotional, and creative core of the musical experience?"

Tristan Al-Haddad's "iCAVE" was another highlight, although more from an aesthetic or design standpoint for me.

Except that the piece was more about an "exploration into the perception of other formative constructs: spaces of movement, flux, life, and discovery. First spaces of the womb, the cave, the termite nest, the ant colony, the bee hive, or many other such structures are all spaces which create a very different type of spatial cognition for the inhabitant than that of contemporary voided Euclidean space."

I'm not sure space was really turned on its head for me in this installation. Walking through and viewing these hive-shaped forms I felt separated by scale, not viewing the forms as a reconfiguration of the architecture as much as alien forms floating within the still existent euclidean construct - "the box."

Nevertheless, iCAVE, had a strange vibe about it, maybe it was the oddly cushy floor and the bubble wrap walls, but I kept coming back for more.

Danielle Roney's "Fluid Architecture" projection pieces were meditative in their deconstructing and reconstructing of the spaces inside and outside of the gallery.

"Fluid Architecture: Interior Movements" 2008 Site Specific Digital Media Installation

"In the conceptual works of Global Portals, the artist as researcher is a critical role in the creative process between art and technology. As new media redefines the role and power of the individual within the evolution of societal perspectives, the boundaries between art and scientific theory, particularly entanglement, become an increasingly interesting metaphor."

I found the room best experienced in solitude, spending enough time to allow the mind to absorb the projections as visual information, attempting to make sense of it, perhaps altering perception. (hint: the morphing image on the wall is actually of the gallery room ceiling.)

Roney's installation room reminded me of Reffi's work, each artist fully transforming the mood of their space, their art changing the experience for anyone passing through.

Roney in Reffi's room.

Strange thing about tech savvy art, when the show is over, there is a power button to turn it all off.

And later in the night, I don't know, but maybe I finally tracked down the last of the elusive Atlanta art blogging pack, it's Ben from Proclaim it Lost who has the ability to guess age based on the number of items decorating one's key chain.

"Breaking New Ground" is up at Spruill Gallery through June 26th 2008. Go check it, it's worth the drive.

Ker-Plunk

Megan McNeer "Pomegranite"

Went by Opal Gallery to see "Ka-Chunk"

an exhibition of Medium Format Photography. The show was co-curated with SCAD masters candidate, Lee Jones, and included the work of fellow SCAD students along with other photographers who responded to a Call for Entry.

Julie Sims "Light After Dark 3"

There is a disconnect for me in saying a show was curated when there was a Call for Entry involved, which sounds more like a juried show, especially considering the unifying theme was simply the use of a Medium Format Camera, and nothing more conceptual.

Nicole Akstein "Pool, Bradley Beach, New Jersey" 2005 (from North series)

While the hanging of the show was done thoughtfully, eking out connections between the various artists and photographs, the broader theme of the Medium Format Camera itself was left relatively untouched. I was curious to see this show after reading the press release, surprised to hear of a show of nothing but Medium Format work in a time when photographers are turning to digital in rapid numbers or instead sticking with their large format cameras for the pristine detail.

Lee Jones "Village of Yesterday"

To champion the Medium Format camera now, to examine why particular photographers are sticking with an aging tool is interesting, right? But I found no insights into this, instead viewing images that could have just as easily been shot digitally.

Allyson Ross "Folding Table (Part of the Goethe Ave. Series)"

The photographers in the show took a straight documentary approach to shooting, composing quiet observations in the details of the day to day. Photographer Allyson Ross added a needed dimension to the show with her "Goethe Ave." series of miniature interiors.

Allyson Ross "Fridge (Part of the Goethe Ave. Series)"

The photographs reminded me of another SCAD related show and the work of Jessica Dodd, who also photographs domestic scenes created with miniature dollhouse accessories (is this a trend?) but Ross's images push the depth of field to create a surreal, almost abstracted environment surrounding highly detailed pieces of furniture.

Allyson Ross "Chair (Part of the Goethe Ave. Series)"

The three photographs by Ross were placed apart, one on each of the three walls, drawing links to the other interior shots and photographs of domestic details, all embodying a similar loneliness packed with visual clues for the voyeur's interpretation.

Darin Melton "I Sat"

Darin Melton's photograph of a chair brought a nice reality check to the strange dreamworld Ross created with the plaid lay-z-boy. (I also saw Melton's work at the Beep Beep show Plastic Makes Perfect last year)

Gallery owner Constance Lewis was nice enough to talk about the show with me and I was excited to learn that the gallery will be taking advantage of its unique location this summer to show a film projected directly onto the front of the gallery. From what I heard it will definitely be an event worth attending.

The show has been extended an extra week, go check it out and draw your own conclusions on the current state of the Medium Format.

Between Knowing & Remembering (Part III)

I was drawn back to Kiang Gallery once more by the likes of artist duo Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry. Except this time ACP was hosting the party to announce a public art collaboration between the artists and the photography festival.

The temporary installation will take place on the interior and exterior of the water tower in the Old Fourth Ward. McCallum said the abandoned landmark caught his attention while they were driving towards the Martin Luther King Center in the same neighborhood.


I'm looking forward to seeing what transpires there in October. It's an interesting choice for McCallum and Tarry, because their work is so racially and historically focused, yet they are drawn to work with a structure which has no direct ties to the Civil Rights Movement but is located within an area of Atlanta steeped in its history.

While at the gallery I took the opportunity to watch again the video McCallum and Tarry included in their show, "Another Country."

Standing beside me were two woman who were watching it for the first time and I recognized their winces and squirming as the same reaction I had to seeing the blood and needles. "Is this for real?"

"Yes!" I said.

As a biracial couple, much of McCallum and Tarry's video work deals with the complexity of this relationship within the context of our country's weighty history. But unlike the previous two videos I have seen, this piece was stripped bare of aesthetic artifice, mystery and dramatics peeled away, to reveal something much more raw, more unsettling in its brutal honesty.

Previously at the artists talk, Tarry said the video was inspired by the "One Drop Rule" of the first half of the 20th century. According to this law, anyone of European ancestry with as much as one drop of African blood was considered "black." This was enacted largely to prevent interracial relationships. Tarry said there are dramatic stories from this time of interracial couples pricking their fingers and sharing blood in the very courtroom that had just condemned them to imprisonment for the crime of coupling.

In the video, McCallum and Tarry, through a slow, almost ritualistic practice, use IVs to have a blood transfusion, literally exchanging blood. The video itself became more of an instrument for documentation, while the actual act between the artists was a private performance piece, shared with the viewer through video.

The video, while in many ways very separate from the paintings in "Another Country," was a vital element to the show. The video grounded the issues of the Civil Rights Movement within an intimate dialogue, connecting the artists to the subject matter through their own personal story. The video seemed to represent a next chapter to the history which the paintings dealt with, as a sort of rising above, or a breaking down. Watching McCallum and Tarry exchange blood asked the question, are these two still an interracial couple or has McCallum's heritage suddenly changed? Has Tarry's changed? And the superficiality of racial labeling, the ridiculousness of the "One-Drop Rule" come sharply into focus.

"Another Country" has been extended at Kiang Gallery until June 7th 2008. If you haven't seen it yet, take advantage and GO!

Related Posts:

New to the Neighborhood

Loaded

Between Knowing & Remembering (Part I)

Between Knowing & Remembering (Part II)