WLCM BCK Show Review

     After viewing the "Welcome Back Show" at Mason Gross (cleverly abbreviated as the WLCM BCK Show), I was pleasantly surprised by the work shown in the galleries, as well as the overall flow of the pieces from space to space. I thought that the Show had a good mixture of works from different mediums, but additionally a lot of variety of works that may have been within the same concentration as well. The Show had works created by graduate students and art teachers, but additionally featured separate works from artist Lydia Craig entitled, "Intimate Observations", as well as two video installations entitled, "Dissolving Gardens", created by artist Jim Toia.

     Each of the pieces shown in the galleries illustrated their own distinction against other works around them, while simultaneously working with these different works in some form, even if they were of a different theme or medium. The entire art show had an eclectic, yet evenly blended feel in terms of the way the works were displayed. I did not mind that the Show did not have an overall theme, because I feel that a theme would distract the viewer's from their individual interpretations and thoughts of each piece.

1. Eileen Behnke, "...on the grass", 2010, Oil on Canvas, 5" x 3"
     This was the first piece I noticed upon entering the gallery. It stood out to me not only in size, but in its brightness of color, circular composition, and cartoonish design and layering of color. This painting's theme is naturalistic, in that it illustrates 6 friends relaxing on the grass, an activity that most people do from time to time. However, what drew me further into this work was the way in which one of the figures makes direct eye contact with the viewer, almost incorporating that person into the work as well. This piece is very vibrant and possesses a lot of character, which helps it to stand out against the plain, white background of the gallery wall.

 

 

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2. Martha Rosler, "Off the Shelf: War and Empire", 2008, & "Off the Shelf: Utopian Science Fiction, M", 2008, 28 by 22 in. 71.1 by 55.9 cm, Digital Print

     I found these pieces to be very thought provoking as well as intriguing to look at. While viewing these works, I asked myself a variety of questions, such as: "why did she choose Sci-Fi novels?" "why are there no bookshelves when clearly this is meant to be a bookcase?" However, I liked the way in which Rosler made the images of the books appear so vivid and tangible, as if the viewer could reach up and literally take one of the books off of the invisible bookshelves. The artist took something so ordinary and familiar to the average person, and made it into something else. She makes the viewer appreciate the books at their simplest forms; linear, vertical, horizontal, colorful, plain, etc. which encourages the viewer to think outside of the box. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3. Erin Dunn, "Woops", 2010, Mixed Media

     These works accompanied the vibrancy and excitement that was seen throughout the galleries in many of the works displayed within the Show. Although I am often drawn to abstract pieces, these works displayed something different to me that made me admire them. The irregularity of line, bright, bold splotches of color, interesting depth made me not only view the pieces, but study them. I felt the mix of media used on these paintings worked well for the overall look of the artwork as well as making the pieces more interesting and complex. These works seem like much more than paintings, but seem to convey different emotions from the artist as well. I liked how in the bottom painting, the paint continued from the canvas onto the gallery floor as if it was reaching out toward the viewer. It was also interesting how the artist had a smaller piece of an entirely different shape hidden behind the floor painting. This allowed the overall work to be displayed at different angles, as opposed to a traditional 2-D work.

 

 

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4. Richard Tuttle with John Yau, "The Missing Portrait", 2008, Handmade book with poems by John Yau, illustrated by Richard Tuttle, 18" x 16" x 8"

     I felt that this piece stood out from all of the others not because of its design, color scheme, or content, but simply because it was the only one of it's kind --- a book. I was very intrigued at the construction of this work because of the way the literal words of the pages worked together to form visual imagery. I enjoyed how the artists played with different words in order to create textual artwork. I also liked how the artists used different paper materials (including tissue and construction papers) to create the book. Although many of the sentences used throughout the book did not make sense within the book, I feel that it was more important to appreciate the visual aesthetic of the work, rather than the literal message. This book was one of my favorite pieces in the Welcome Back Show because of its simple, yet complicated design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The WLCM BCK show was successful in displaying different, unique works in a gallery space but making them cohesive with the overall feel of the show. Each piece was placed well within the different galleries and worked well together to create the look of the Show. The differences in works made the Show more interesting and less predictable as well which kept me interested the entire time I viewed it.

Interview with Mary Shelffo

Tiffany: My name is Tiffany Dodson and I will be interviewing Mary Shelffo for BFA Thesis artist interviews. Hi Mary.

Mary: Hello.

T: So to start off, what’s your concentration?

M: I’m doing a concentration in photography and design.

T: What made you decide to pursue a career in visual arts or something related to it?

M: Well Mason Gross is actually the only art school I applied to, and I applied to a lot of schools and I actually had a teacher at the time, she was my computer graphics teacher. She encouraged me to come to Mason Gross. I was always interested in art so, that’s kind of how I wound up here.

T: Okay. So what do you want to eventually do with this degree?

M: I used to really want to do illustration, and that kind of started at Mason Gross because I really liked the drawing classes I took here. Since then, I’ve done an internship where I did creative marketing and I really enjoyed that advertising side of design. I just feel like I want to try a lot of things out before I ultimately decide.

T: Do you have any idea what you want to do for your thesis project?

M: Well, I know that I want to use both of my concentrations, multi-media of some sort, and I’ve been thinking of thesis words which is something we have to do for design. My thesis words are: memory, identity, and collection. I am really interested in what people’s stuff says about them and the kind of things that people collect as well as personality and the kinds of things you choose to expose to people. It’s kind of all over the place still though.

T: If you had to choose some kind of them to represent yourself and your fellow classmates for the thesis show, what do you think you would choose?

M: Hm, that’s a hard one. Something revolving around the fact that on the one hand, this is something that is revolving around the culmination of our college years, but on the other hand, it’s just the beginning of our lives after college. I can’t really equate one word for that but that would be a good connecting theme. Because presumably it’s something you’ve been doing since you started here as a freshmen, even if you weren’t exactly thinking about your thesis project at that time, you’ve been working towards it. And at the same time once it’s done, you know, you’re out there.

T: Tell me more about your experiences within creative advertising because that seems like the avenue you’re learning toward as far as job searching after college.

M: I worked at Lord & Taylor over the summer and I was in the marketing department and I did creative marketing, so I worked on a lot of direct mail pieces and a lot of internet banner ads. The coolest thing I got to do, they had an event, it was a back to school fashion show for kids and I designed all the new signage for it. They gave me the name, the event was called “School La-La”, and so I designed the logo mock up. They used it on all their mailing stuff, which was really cool. I was actually buying something, and I went to the register, and they had a stack of these next to it that they were handing out in the store. I was just like, “Oh my gosh! I made that.” So that was the coolest print thing I got to do because it was totally me, whereas some other stuff that I did, I got to choose colors for, and yeah it was still going out to people but that was more all me. Also, they have a new social media page that they just put out and I designed the banner and the icon to be used for that. The best thing about it was having an actual real experience. I went into it thinking I was going to be doing some standard intern stuff and I got to a lot more which was really cool.

T: So you worked in a corporate office?

M: Yeah, in New York City, their

5^th Avenue

flagship store. It was a really great experience and I got to go to New York everyday. So I can show you one of the sketches I did, I took it and sketched different ways I thought it should be laid out and then the sketches go to the art director, the art director picks one, and they get sent to the photographer. And so the photographer shot it based on my drawing. And after editing and everything, you can say what you like and what you think should be changed, and ultimately you’d get the final product. The other thing about it too was, I’ve been taking design since I started here, and this was much more hands-on, and it makes a big difference.

T: How is it working in design in an actual work environment?

M: It’s fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun. There’s not so much of a thematic element to my work, but I am into color, especially in photography and design too. I’m just drawn to color and I like making different color combinations. I also find myself over and over zooming into things and getting this really close detail to where, you can’t even tell what it is. I feel like I do have a lot of overlap with my two concentrations just in developing my own style.

T: Okay well thanks for speaking with me, it was very interesting learning about your artwork.

M: Thank you, you also.

"Water" Exhibit, Zimmerli Museum, 9/10/10

     I felt the "Water" exhibition at the Zimmerli Art Museum was very strong in illustrating the various forms, mediums, and interpretations the element of water can have to artists and viewers. It was evident that the curator knew the importance of incorporating different mediums and ideas of the theme in the show, including: paintings, sculpture pieces, photography, and video art. The exhibit draws from different time periods as well, and was very successful in terms of the audience encouraging its audience to view the medium in new ways. An example of thinking about this element in a different way is evidenced by the piece "Condensation Cube" by Hans Haacke, in which water is exhibited as a scientific process in which water condensation turns into dew that hangs on the top of the cube's surface. As the show's curator previously stated, the exhibition is "not simply a show about works on a paper or paintings on a wall."
     Within this show, water is interpreted in a number of ways; not only as an element that is often used in its liquid state, but more so as something that all humans depend on as a part of their life source. Water is something that connects the entire world because all life forms depend on it in some capacity.
     I feel that there is enough space between each of the works, but that the video pieces are spaced too far apart from one another. The way that the curator thought of different titles for certain rooms, such as "Women in the Waves, Men in Boats", which steamed from the ironic pairing of these types of images, worked well to connect certain works from different artists and different time periods.
     The curator's intention of drawing the viewer into other rooms of the show with certain works was not successful because they did not lead me in a certain direction toward any particular pieces. The curator and artists' intentions matched up well because both of their ultimate goals were to illustrate water as a work of art in various ways, which include various ways of depicting water itself. The importance of water as a life source, as well as the role it plays historically and geographically lends itself to the diversity and appeal of the overall exhibition.

     From the "Water" show, I chose to curate the video piece, "Ablutions" by Bill Viola, the series of photographs by Phyllis Galembo, "Amazing Grace" by Wangechi Mutu, and "Amelia & Hope, Accabonac Harbor 2003" by Robin Schwartz. I picked these four works because each of them display a human body within a body of water. More specifically, the piece "Amazing Grace" and Galembo's photographs illustrate an ethnic and spiritual connection an individual may have to water. Galembo's photographs illustrate people of Haitian descent "paying tribute to the Virgin Mary"* by immersing their bodies in a sacred waterfall, and  in the "Amazing Grace" video, the song being sung by the narrarator is a historical gospel hymn that can be heard in many African-American churches. 
     If I had to curate this show, I would place the videos in close proximity to each other, perhaps a wall apart. Additionally, I would place the photographs along the same wall next to each other being that they are of the same medium and each depict individuals in bodies of water and evoke a sense of serenity to the viewer. None of these pieces would be installed too far from each other being that they share very similar themes.

*Exhibition information card, Zimmerli Art Museum.

Bill Viola, "Ablutions", 2005.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Phyllis Galembo, "Sodo, Haiti 1997-2001", "St. Yves, Haiti 2002", "Sodo, Haiti 1997-2001".
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Wangechi Mutu, "Amazing Grace", 2005.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Robin Schwartz, "Amelia & Hope, Accabonac Harbor", 2003.