SYSTEM DISRUPTION that seeks answers in visual art to one of the most
important questions of our era – namely, what is the ideal balance
between a system
, R. Nelson Parrish,
January 18, 2018 - February 25, 2018
Reception will be 1st Thursday, February 1st
SYSTEM DISRUPTION
What is the ideal balance between a system and its disruption? How
can the eye “know” things about the world before there is any scientific
or mathematical explanation? No matter where or when, some system is
being “disrupted” by another, resulting in change. Beginning February
1st,
Sullivan Goss Gallery (11 E. Anapamu St.) seeks to answer these questions through visual art in a new exhibition,
System Disruption.
This show uses some of the best artists’ works to observe how normal
individuals might be able to balance the need for order and
predictability with the need for invention and transformation.
Starting with the earliest artist in the exhibition,
Lockwood de Forest who
dated back from 1850-1932, the show observes how this particular artist
constituted an art system by working with similar proportions to land,
sea and sky. Painting only outdoors, De Forest was pressured to finish
his works quickly before the sun set. Since he painted on thick paper,
De Forest could not return to his works to turpentine out mistakes. In
his case, the “system” was both a format and a process because the
repetition allowed him the maximum freedom to develop and refine his
subtle coloration and evocative brushwork as he painted all over the
world.
Similarly for
Nicole Strasburg,
her system was also a format and a process which began with her desire
to learn how to paint in gouache. Collecting internet-borne weather
camera shots, Strasburg made prints of the basic landscape forms and
then painted on these prints, recording the changing landscape captured
by her camera. Painting in one size and on one medium, Strasburg was
able to capture a spectacular amount of variety. Strasburg’s system
displays more than enough disruption by capturing climatic and seasonal
changes on one spectrum.
This similar format within a constrained process is also practiced by artist
Bob Nugent, who draws and paints images of his observations along the
Amazon river. Nugent
slices large sheets of wood veneer into 3 x 3 inch pieces which are
then combined onto panels to create one foot by one foot nature studies.
Nugent is not only interested in the connection between how the
memory’s filter interacts with the photographic and written experiences,
but also the subtle message about the clear cutting of Amazon rain
forests and the ever changing shape of the river itself.
On the other hand, the process of scraping layers of wet spray paint was of interest to
R. Nelson Parrish, a
man who uses art a means of reconciling an ongoing investigation into
the subtle contrasts between the natural and man-made conditions and
states. Painting numerous wet on wet layers of archival aerosol on
cold-pressed Arches paper, Parrish realized the paint would dry too
quickly for him to add more detail and began to scrape stripes. Soon
enough, Parrish created a symbolic piece of art—the American flag.
Going hand-in-hand with the current political discussions is the “#Metoo Series” by
Nancy Gifford. After her famous piece
“Lament”
became widely exhibited, the artist became a collector of old books.
Gifford took the interior texts of these novels, mounted them to birch
panels, painted an open ruffle skirt and added legs in different
postures. Gifford’s art displays her idea of the system being designed
to disrupt society’s dialogue about certain “types” of girls within
communities.
To some artists, such as
Rafael Perea de la Cabada,
the system is simple, undefined process For Perea de la Canada, art has
no defined format and is constantly evolving through a series of
counter moves. In his piece, Interferencia (Interference), Perea de la
Cabada illustrates a system through its original signal recorded in many
layers, drips and drawings, suggesting that his work exists in the
presence of disruptions.
As for other artists, systems are best understood as a creative and intuitive practice.
Nathan Hayden’s
idea of a system is shown in his tiny pictographic ink drawings which
are strategically placed around an axial symmetry with notes that he has
taken during the moment to help maintain his creative flow. Although
creative disruptions are integrated throughout the process, the
transformations from one form to the next keep his system evolving.
At the high point of the Modernist movement in the mid-century,
humanity and gumption collided with geometric abstraction when two west
and east coast artists worked to bring distraction to the system.
Jules Engel (1915-2003) of Los Angeles and
Sidney Gordin (1918-1996) of New York worked with and against “the grid,” pushing formal boundaries to see what was possible.
Collisions also occur in
Ann Diener’s drawing
and collage of the system of time, immigration, development and decay.
Illustrating how places can be molded by disruptive forces, Deiner added
digital photography and swirled compositions of familiar images in a
process of “over-drawing” to describe her idea of the system.
Artist
Ethan Turpin created a “
Video Organism”
piece, which reflected his idea of a system that feeds and evolves on
its disruptions. In this piece, organic geometries grow from his
two-camera setup and uses its output as an input to evolve new designs.
Turpin’s idea was to allow the public to interact, and further “disrupt”
the system, but the system would only adopt those disruptions and
evolve.
This exhibition was originally scheduled to open on the 1st Thursday
in January. Ironically, the Thomas Fire disrupted the Gallery’s usual
system.
The exhibition opening reception is Thursday, February 1 from 5-8
p.m, at the Sullivan Goss Gallery and remains on view through February
25.
