Fall Exhibition 2014 Arlington Arts Center
The Arlington Arts Center in its personal and collective half yearly gallery works hard to shed light on a number of new and influential experiences from contemporary artist in the region. The Center called for submissions at the beginning of 2014. Applications were submitted to a group of residents among a committee comprising of Andrea Bolan, Director of the Residents Office in Washington and Jeffrey Codlin, Artist, Critic and Professor of Exhibition Organisation and Artistic Practice Studies at the Institute of Maryland College of Art in Baltimore who recommend the inclusion of artists and reviewed committee proposals. They selected a group of artists working with a range of different media and artistic materials such as paint, sculpture, installations, photography, new media and the performing arts. As such, a collection of individual exhibitions were chosen for the Autumn Gallery 2014, including Thomas Burkett, Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Matthew Moore, Matthew Shelley and Ann Tarantino. The gallery opened on Saturday 18th October and closed on 21st December 2014.
“You are a Spring of Water” – Thomas Burkett
On a quick tour around the galleries we see the work of Thomas Burkett entitled “You are a Spring of Water”. Thomas speaks about his work saying, “Even if your mother wasn’t exactly correct to tell you you’d go instantly, completely, and permanently blind staring at the noontime sun, her warning was offering some useful advice just the same. Look steadily at the sun for a little longer – like the girl on amphetamines who stared at a solar eclipse for a full half hour and you can cause damage to the retina. But what actually happens when you try to hold a staring contest with our closes star? As such, my work “You are Spring of Water” is a collection of water and energy intake during a month of rowing where I took samples from the watersheds of the James River. I collected 72 water samples as I followed the river’s tributaries from the Appalachian springs to the Chesapeake Bay.” With a disaster on the horizon, Burkett poses many questions and reflections through his work: What does one learn by staring at this artistic composition? What is natural aesthetic? What about environmental protection? What is the language of the trip? What is the spirit of endurance? The alienation from information as part of creating discussion on local geographical regions and environments? The object-oriented modifications and displacement of revisiting traditional methods in traditional environmental logic? The discovery of a balanced, neutral place that gives breath a new value to add to the archive of the passerby.
“On the Brink” Series – Joyce Yu-Jean Lee
In her ongoing series “On the Brink” her main title, Joyce Yu-Jean Lee focuses on presenting a video on the power of words. Joyce created and formed digital animations through imaging art from current social, political and economic advertisements and headlines by hand cutting them from magazines and newspapers. The headlines that everyday drown their readers and other texts are both compliments and flattery but also a critique and curse impacting on audiences like the effect of explosives on the senses. Joyce believes that these titles make up our dreams and ambitions to make fortunes and have families as well as present solutions to life’s problems, whilst at the same time destroying the reputation of those it will or immersing us or our countries into panic and war. Joyce says, “I was there as if I was a commander in control of this animation built from lifestyle magazines and blended with a churning mix of ambitious terms for a modern and elegant life. I designed this work with depict.com, a new platform online to discover, collect and present digital art. This work is available for purchase with its own application on the company’s website at an affordable price. Joyce aspires to “difficult peace”; technology is your friend that hovers quietly in the corners around you like a virtual cloud carrying news to fill the space in our minds at the appropriate time with aspiring promises of elusive beauty and comfort. These works refer to the rigidity and power of text-based media and question the extent of its never-ending impact on consumer culture.
Ann Tarantino
Ann Tarantino’s work travels between painting, video, new media and spatial installations that tell stories about places, natural processes and the human experience. In all her work we see an image hovering between the abstract and representational, inspired by a world where those of the land and underwater intersect and coalesce. Tarantino references and cites various different systems in the majority of her work, from delicate nerve tissue as decoration that reveals slices of bran cells to emotional relationships and their impact on contemporary social networks, complex networks of the necessary relationships to maintain healthy ecological systems, and complicated streets in ancient cities. Through her work, Tarantino is interested in the experiences of the body when moving through space and gatherings and the following assessment of stimuli that inspire her, from material sources ranging between plant illustrations, contemporary information imaging strategies, knitting patterns and cracks in street pavements. Her work refers to infinite repetition and growth, and explores what it is around us that makes us feel that we are still alive.
“Backpack” Mobile Gallery - Heloisa Escudero
Heliosa Escudero says about her work: “All my projects include conceptual ideas carrying an interactive nature in the first instance for the audience. In many projects the audience have become a part of the project through tangible interaction with my artwork. I do not predetermine my work through a specific material or substance and may be represented through performance, video, installation, painting or photography”. “Backpack” is a mobile gallery and showroom presenting backpacks and is a work inherently interactive in nature. This artistic project brings together all fields of contemporary visual art such as performance art by transforming the exhibition space into somewhere not limited to the building or the showroom into a sculpture with an interactive character allowing participation with other artists, as well as interaction with other environments/spaces, viewers and the audience. The “Backpack” showroom takes art beyond the usual scope by liberating it from the conventional situation into the public domain and the mobile, whereby the art and artists come to the display. My work as a showroom aims to provide art in an interactive environment that mixes and combines the art of video, performance and sculpture. The “Backpack” showroom was equipped with all lighting units, folders and informational records as the artist’s resume, a register for those who attended to record their observations, as well as magnetic doors to preserve written artistic materials as the artist’s discourse, goals and the mission of the showroom, in addition to audiovisual equipment. During the presentation of the work the audience was required to interact with the mobile performance with viewers holding the work as a backpack and embodying the character of the artist. Heloisa says, “I am the artist, it’s hard to live off the production of my artistic projects. As a fine artist, I think in a very abstract and conceptual way. You have to learn quickly, either to produce simple or quick work to market or get a job to pay the bills”.
East/West – Matthew Moore
Artist Matthew Moore presented a series of photographs depicting abandoned checkpoints that separate former eastern bloc countries from the west, particularly the Czech Republic from Germany and Austria. Along with the iron curtains that remain, each checkpoint carries with it an enormous amount of historical significance. Today, all of these hollow empty buildings stand vacant, their function only to serve as a reminder that one is passing from one country to another. Matthew aims here not only to capture the dramatic memories that without a doubt took place at such barriers before 1989, but he is also interested in them as symbols of the perpetual change that takes place in Europe and beyond. The checkpoints are displayed alongside pictures of empty pedestals Moore discovered during his journeys throughout the region. Afterwards the statues were evidence of removal operations due to political or ideological reasons, another reminder of the current changing situation, with the landscape bearing the evidence of such unrest. According to Matthew, an outsider to the region, they represent a highly sensitive mark. Matthew believes that the function of the pictures in this project is exactly the same as that of time capsules, giving viewers a glimpse into the past as well as a prediction of possible significant change in the future.
A-Frame – Matthew Shelley
Matthew Shelley talks about his work saying, “my work presents pictures and installations I have found to explore the formative depth of photography as well as size and natural landscapes. I collect most of the materials for my work from environmental science, travel and leisure books. I then remove the pages and scan the pictures. I form the pictures in a complex manner to complicate its characteristics as a simple raw material. I build the work on the premise of compiling, developing and building scenarios that are a combination of my experience with the materials, and with which I photograph and then dismantle. My practice focuses on addition and subtraction as a method of filtering images and discovering possibilities to draw subjects or elements. Through the process of construction and removal, the scene is separated from its initial context and reformed as innovative content or disconnected from the initial perceived material. In many cases I form a complex environment from different and multiple sites. Other times I work to change the image by new topical perspectives or by adding simple forms. In general, I am interested in creating a relationship between illusion and flatness, I try to use the scene not as a subject in itself but the motor to see the informational characteristics of the image”.
Khanh Le
Khanh Le discusses his work saying, “my work is an influenced mix of design and endless simplicity, photography, and the history of abstract painting. It is the transformation of regular family photo albums into colorful abstractions with external lines using a gold pen, sequins, stickers and acrylic crystal. These materials may be seen as items of little value, but there is a freedom in the form of specific cultural references. For example a photograph is to preserve the memories of happy celebrations, but in my work, I mix countries’ popular culture with abstraction to create new work that can be seen as a personal abstraction of another kind or an art based on identity; or both. My work bears the characteristics of contradiction and divisions that in themselves represent the main issues in my study of the concept of identity. Although I define myself as a Vietnamese-American, I still do not know what that means. There is an inherent internal conflict due to the fact that I was born too late. By the time I came into life Vietnam had already declared its independence. My late birth was the reason for my removal from this important historical point. Being raised in the US taught me how to cope with my identity in living between two cultures. Therefore identify is the main theme of my work and I question it through bits and pieces collected from personal memory and the combined history of the two cultures. All of this is clearly visible in the collage formation process, the combination of mixed materials and the following sticking stage and build up of layers of pictures on top of one another to create a new historical narrative that reflects the tension within my identity.
“You are a Spring of Water” – Thomas Burkett
On a quick tour around the galleries we see the work of Thomas Burkett entitled “You are a Spring of Water”. Thomas speaks about his work saying, “Even if your mother wasn’t exactly correct to tell you you’d go instantly, completely, and permanently blind staring at the noontime sun, her warning was offering some useful advice just the same. Look steadily at the sun for a little longer – like the girl on amphetamines who stared at a solar eclipse for a full half hour and you can cause damage to the retina. But what actually happens when you try to hold a staring contest with our closes star? As such, my work “You are Spring of Water” is a collection of water and energy intake during a month of rowing where I took samples from the watersheds of the James River. I collected 72 water samples as I followed the river’s tributaries from the Appalachian springs to the Chesapeake Bay.” With a disaster on the horizon, Burkett poses many questions and reflections through his work: What does one learn by staring at this artistic composition? What is natural aesthetic? What about environmental protection? What is the language of the trip? What is the spirit of endurance? The alienation from information as part of creating discussion on local geographical regions and environments? The object-oriented modifications and displacement of revisiting traditional methods in traditional environmental logic? The discovery of a balanced, neutral place that gives breath a new value to add to the archive of the passerby.
“On the Brink” Series – Joyce Yu-Jean Lee
In her ongoing series “On the Brink” her main title, Joyce Yu-Jean Lee focuses on presenting a video on the power of words. Joyce created and formed digital animations through imaging art from current social, political and economic advertisements and headlines by hand cutting them from magazines and newspapers. The headlines that everyday drown their readers and other texts are both compliments and flattery but also a critique and curse impacting on audiences like the effect of explosives on the senses. Joyce believes that these titles make up our dreams and ambitions to make fortunes and have families as well as present solutions to life’s problems, whilst at the same time destroying the reputation of those it will or immersing us or our countries into panic and war. Joyce says, “I was there as if I was a commander in control of this animation built from lifestyle magazines and blended with a churning mix of ambitious terms for a modern and elegant life. I designed this work with depict.com, a new platform online to discover, collect and present digital art. This work is available for purchase with its own application on the company’s website at an affordable price. Joyce aspires to “difficult peace”; technology is your friend that hovers quietly in the corners around you like a virtual cloud carrying news to fill the space in our minds at the appropriate time with aspiring promises of elusive beauty and comfort. These works refer to the rigidity and power of text-based media and question the extent of its never-ending impact on consumer culture.
Ann Tarantino
Ann Tarantino’s work travels between painting, video, new media and spatial installations that tell stories about places, natural processes and the human experience. In all her work we see an image hovering between the abstract and representational, inspired by a world where those of the land and underwater intersect and coalesce. Tarantino references and cites various different systems in the majority of her work, from delicate nerve tissue as decoration that reveals slices of bran cells to emotional relationships and their impact on contemporary social networks, complex networks of the necessary relationships to maintain healthy ecological systems, and complicated streets in ancient cities. Through her work, Tarantino is interested in the experiences of the body when moving through space and gatherings and the following assessment of stimuli that inspire her, from material sources ranging between plant illustrations, contemporary information imaging strategies, knitting patterns and cracks in street pavements. Her work refers to infinite repetition and growth, and explores what it is around us that makes us feel that we are still alive.
“Backpack” Mobile Gallery - Heloisa Escudero
Heliosa Escudero says about her work: “All my projects include conceptual ideas carrying an interactive nature in the first instance for the audience. In many projects the audience have become a part of the project through tangible interaction with my artwork. I do not predetermine my work through a specific material or substance and may be represented through performance, video, installation, painting or photography”. “Backpack” is a mobile gallery and showroom presenting backpacks and is a work inherently interactive in nature. This artistic project brings together all fields of contemporary visual art such as performance art by transforming the exhibition space into somewhere not limited to the building or the showroom into a sculpture with an interactive character allowing participation with other artists, as well as interaction with other environments/spaces, viewers and the audience. The “Backpack” showroom takes art beyond the usual scope by liberating it from the conventional situation into the public domain and the mobile, whereby the art and artists come to the display. My work as a showroom aims to provide art in an interactive environment that mixes and combines the art of video, performance and sculpture. The “Backpack” showroom was equipped with all lighting units, folders and informational records as the artist’s resume, a register for those who attended to record their observations, as well as magnetic doors to preserve written artistic materials as the artist’s discourse, goals and the mission of the showroom, in addition to audiovisual equipment. During the presentation of the work the audience was required to interact with the mobile performance with viewers holding the work as a backpack and embodying the character of the artist. Heloisa says, “I am the artist, it’s hard to live off the production of my artistic projects. As a fine artist, I think in a very abstract and conceptual way. You have to learn quickly, either to produce simple or quick work to market or get a job to pay the bills”.
East/West – Matthew Moore
Artist Matthew Moore presented a series of photographs depicting abandoned checkpoints that separate former eastern bloc countries from the west, particularly the Czech Republic from Germany and Austria. Along with the iron curtains that remain, each checkpoint carries with it an enormous amount of historical significance. Today, all of these hollow empty buildings stand vacant, their function only to serve as a reminder that one is passing from one country to another. Matthew aims here not only to capture the dramatic memories that without a doubt took place at such barriers before 1989, but he is also interested in them as symbols of the perpetual change that takes place in Europe and beyond. The checkpoints are displayed alongside pictures of empty pedestals Moore discovered during his journeys throughout the region. Afterwards the statues were evidence of removal operations due to political or ideological reasons, another reminder of the current changing situation, with the landscape bearing the evidence of such unrest. According to Matthew, an outsider to the region, they represent a highly sensitive mark. Matthew believes that the function of the pictures in this project is exactly the same as that of time capsules, giving viewers a glimpse into the past as well as a prediction of possible significant change in the future.
A-Frame – Matthew Shelley
Matthew Shelley talks about his work saying, “my work presents pictures and installations I have found to explore the formative depth of photography as well as size and natural landscapes. I collect most of the materials for my work from environmental science, travel and leisure books. I then remove the pages and scan the pictures. I form the pictures in a complex manner to complicate its characteristics as a simple raw material. I build the work on the premise of compiling, developing and building scenarios that are a combination of my experience with the materials, and with which I photograph and then dismantle. My practice focuses on addition and subtraction as a method of filtering images and discovering possibilities to draw subjects or elements. Through the process of construction and removal, the scene is separated from its initial context and reformed as innovative content or disconnected from the initial perceived material. In many cases I form a complex environment from different and multiple sites. Other times I work to change the image by new topical perspectives or by adding simple forms. In general, I am interested in creating a relationship between illusion and flatness, I try to use the scene not as a subject in itself but the motor to see the informational characteristics of the image”.
Khanh Le
Khanh Le discusses his work saying, “my work is an influenced mix of design and endless simplicity, photography, and the history of abstract painting. It is the transformation of regular family photo albums into colorful abstractions with external lines using a gold pen, sequins, stickers and acrylic crystal. These materials may be seen as items of little value, but there is a freedom in the form of specific cultural references. For example a photograph is to preserve the memories of happy celebrations, but in my work, I mix countries’ popular culture with abstraction to create new work that can be seen as a personal abstraction of another kind or an art based on identity; or both. My work bears the characteristics of contradiction and divisions that in themselves represent the main issues in my study of the concept of identity. Although I define myself as a Vietnamese-American, I still do not know what that means. There is an inherent internal conflict due to the fact that I was born too late. By the time I came into life Vietnam had already declared its independence. My late birth was the reason for my removal from this important historical point. Being raised in the US taught me how to cope with my identity in living between two cultures. Therefore identify is the main theme of my work and I question it through bits and pieces collected from personal memory and the combined history of the two cultures. All of this is clearly visible in the collage formation process, the combination of mixed materials and the following sticking stage and build up of layers of pictures on top of one another to create a new historical narrative that reflects the tension within my identity.