Rituals
The current show in the Swell Gallery is titled “Rituals,” and strategically subtitled “From Everyday to Once in a Lifetime, Public, Private, Symbolic” to include the widest stretch of what might be considered ritual. It features work by fifteen artists in the summer graduate program. The group of work spans a lovely spectrum between personal meaning to widely recognizable.
Here are the works in counter-clockwork order as you enter the gallery.
“Balance” Alastair Bolton, 32″ x 32″ x 16″ madrone wood, 2007
“Balance” (detail) Alastair Bolton, 32″ x 32″ x 16″ madrone wood, 2007
“Balance” (detail) Alastair Bolton, 32″ x 32″ x 16″ Madrone wood, 2007
“Balance” (detail) Alastair Bolton, 32″ x 32″ x 16″ madrone wood, 2007
Two works by Heidi Maddess
“Not a Mirror Anymore” 10″ x 5″ Heidi Maddess, mixed media on paper, 2007
-
“Though I Offer - This Remains the Same” 10″ x 5″ Heidi Maddess, mixed media on paper, 2007
-
“It’s Inside You” Jason Driskill, 72″ x 48″
acrylic paint, colored pencil, glitter, nail polish, make-up, eyeliner on canvas, 2007
“It’s Inside You” (detail) Jason Driskill, 72″ x 48″
acrylic paint, colored pencil, glitter, nail polish, make-up, eyeliner on canvas, 2007
(Image Pending)
“Ritual” April Grayson, digital video projection on Super 8 film, 2007
-
“Study of the Interior” Derek Haverland, 36″ x 11″ etched glass on panel, 2007
-
“Prayer Machine” (deflated left, inflated right) Nancy Tobin, 48″ x 36″ x 36″ hairdryer, plastic bag, rubber gloves, duct tape, 2007
“Prayer Machine” (detail) Nancy Tobin, 48″ x 36″ x 36″ hairdryer, plastic bag, rubber gloves, duct tape, 2007
-
“Hanging in the Balance” Shirley Hazlett, 51″ X 96″ ink on paper, 2007
-
“Kirtanam” Eric Gibbons, 96″ x 60″ x 2″ rug, sunglasses, gloves, 2007
“Kirtanam” (detail) Eric Gibbons, 96″ x 60″ x 2″ rug, sunglasses, gloves, 2007
-
“Untitled (from the Quietus Series)” Jessie Paige, 30″ x 24″ digital ink print, 2007
“Untitled” (detail) Sande Brinson, 84″ x 36″ x 24″ paper, 2007
July 26th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Jason,
I like “Untitled” by Alma Chaney.
Am I understanding this correctly? “It’s Inside You” Jason Driskill, 72″ x 48″ is divided horizontally into two frames? You only showed the top part in your previous blog. Didn’t I say that my title was “The Invisible Mirror”? That would be compatible with “It’s Inside You” although I think you are looking at something more complicated than what we generally think of as a reflection.
Robert
July 30th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hi Robert,
The top image is the complete painting, while the lower image is just a detail. I took the detail shot from an angle so you can see how the plunger is painted in iridescent fingernail polish. From certain angles it has more presence and color than it seems to have when you stand directly in front of the canvas. It’s kind of a corny effect, I know, but fingernail polish is simply fun that way.
July 30th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Jason,
After thinking about it for a while, I decided that the difference must be in the angles from the photographs were taken. That makes me more curious to see it in person. Maybe someday!
Ever since I saw your painting and its title “It’s Inside You,” my mind keeps saying, “Shouldn’t it be ‘It’s Inside Me.’” The only explanation that I have thought of so far is that you are saying, “It’s [stuff which should be discarded] Inside You [an alternative version of me where I can put the ’shameful’ memories].”
Robert
August 7th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Hey Robert,
Good point about the title “It’s Inside You.”
Theoretically it could just as well be titled “It’s Inside Me.” My thoughts behind the title that I chose went something like this: I’m putting a painting together that features me in a face-off with myself. It could be self-analysis, introspection, reflection… Or it could be seen as facing my Lacanian “other,” extracting part of myself that I wish wasn’t there. And working against the mostly symmetrical design of the image, there is a distinct invasion of the one self into the other (with the plunger’s handle jutting into the torso of the left figure).
The painting functions as a demonstration of me addressing myself, and if I were talking to myself in a moment of self-reflection, I would speak in the second person, addressing myself as “you” instead of “me.”