Welcome Back Show

Each Fall semester, Mason Gross hosts an annual "Welcome Back" show in the gallery space. The show, a culmination of work from both rising MFA 2's and faculty, demonstrate a continuation of long-standing exploration as well as an indicator of the artists standing within Mason Gross's curriculum. In addition, the show is an invitation space for working contemporary artists to display pieces and this year, a host for a memorial show to an artist who has passed away.

My Impression of the show was underwhelmed at first. Aesthetically, I found a lot of trouble relating to the pieces present and trying to reconcile what was there with my own work. My second run through was more fruitful as I was able to digest the pieces with a clearer mind and I found more conceptual bearing in the overall show. The first work to peak my interests was "Endless" the sculptural installation by Barbara Madsen. I have a high respect for Barb as both an artist and a teacher, and I find a lot of resonance in her work. "Endless" a mixed media installation piece, consists of a large white box with two leg supports and a pink cable running out of the top. The interior of the box has pictures of clay sculpted heads, which are visible from the open top to the box and a small door on the side. The piece was originally lost on me as i could not view it as anything more than just a white box. Knowing Barbs aesthetic and her spin towards conceptual art and feminism, I tried looking at the box as a subject and not an object. "Endless" became female in its form. Barb loaded the work with symbolism and situated it as a woman and not an object (adding another layer to how women are objectified). The box has 2 legs for support much like a human stands on two legs. The box is a container, a womb that hold holds and nurtures life, in the pieces case clay heads, unpainted and unfired, relating to development of ideas, artwork and in particular man (all heads were male). The pink cable running out of the box is an umbilical cord, a connection and lifeline for man to woman and ultimately to the outside. The doors on the side of the box represent a birth canal or a vagina, the escape from the womb. Barb Articulates, in a clean almost bare manner, interdependence of man, woman and the connection to the outer world.
The next piece to catch my eye was a print by Anne Mckeown, another faculty member. "Float" which consists of handmade paper with watermark, mitsumata applique and silkscreen, with the work of Printer Kristyna Comer, drew my attention with her use of figurative lines and a muted color palette. The piece embodies a harmonic duality which give it an energetic quality. It is disjointed yet clean, rich in detail, but subdued in color. Anne balances her aesthetic on a hairpin and makes a work that at first glance is flat and simple, but on further inspection is has depth and complexity.
In contrast to Bar and Anne's works, Gabbe Grodin presented pieces that I absolutely did not enjoy. "Untitled" consisted of various gouache and watercolor paintings on paper hung at variable dimensions. The work had the appearance of amateur quality, her paper was not cleanly cut, nor was her mounting proper (tape was exposed and paintings were falling off the wall). Her images were simple and lacked technical refinement that I crave in drawings. The more I looked at the work the more I disliked it, However, the more I looked the more i noticed successes within the pieces. The water paintings were subtly executed with muted tones and careful articulation. Her cell phone screen faded and glowed similar to a real screen and added a sense of illusionistic electronic space. Finally, there were spots and color blotches throughout the works that added drama and visual interest to overall lackluster imagery. I left not just with an understanding, but an appreciation of her pieces.
The last work that caught my eye was "Untitled" a work in progress sculpture by Gary Kuehn. The piece was a block of granite fused to a steel cube with steel rods intertwined. I got a sense of tension and past (granite) intertwined with the present (steel). I respected the ambition of putting a work in progress up as both a display of the piece and the process.
The show like the pieces, at first glance were dead to me, but by allowing myself further interaction and sitting with them, came to life before my eyes. It set the stage for an exciting year to come.

Interview, Morgan Sun

(DM) What were some of the influences behind Dim?

(MS) I knew I was making a film for the film festival, and I had restrictions under 5 minutes, it had to be shot and edited in under a week, I knew I needed a strong script. Dim only has 2 characters, I had to take into consideration how many actors are in it, how many locations, there were few things I had to be cognizant of.

(DM) Where did you get the script, did you write it yourself?

(MS) No, I did not, there is a website online, a resource for filmmakers that I like to use, with consideration of my time constraints and the viability of a location and a cast size, I knew I needed a film I could flesh out and shoot fairly quickly. I found Dim and thought it was just perfect. I emailed the writer and asked him if I could make a film off of its script, he said yes and the rest just went from there

(DM) The actors, people you hired, friends? Where did you find the actors?

(MS) For dim, we went through several people, I asked a few friends of mine but no one was right for the part. Eventually my friend Byron suggested his cousin, who has taken some acting classes, I was a little nervous because of his lack of experience, but he read the part and ultimately it was a good fit

(DM) How about the older actor?

(MS) He is one actually one of my good friends fathers, I actually cast him in another movie in a similar role, and he was perfect for the villainous old man.

(DM) Where are the locations for the film?

(MS) The bathroom was actually the bathroom in the older mans house, I was thinking what spaces I was familiar with and it fit the mold for what kind of space I wanted. The bedroom is my room at home, I took down all my posters and cleaned up to look more mature and adult.

(DM) How did you feel when you won the Rutgers film Festival and went on to NYC?

(MS) I can talk about that for hours, the best way I can sum up the feeling was “This is it,” this is what I want to do, and the first place award solidified my belief that what I am doing is what I should be doing. New York was just amazing, although the film didn’t place there, just having it get that far, and seeing my name among other filmmakers felt like a major accomplishment.

(DM) Who would you say are some of your influences from the film world?

(MS) I like Hollywood, and all the big directors, but at my point in development I am looking more towards my peers and independent film, things that are more accessible to me personally. Twitter and social networking sites also provide a lot of material, I a firm believer in staying current with the latest technology.

(DM) I am excited to say some of your future projects and look forward to your thesis!

(MS) Thank you, Likewise!

Water Exhibition Zimmerli Art Museum

Although my critique is slanted due to my participation in the installation of the water show, I am impressed by the solidification of the theme as both a survey of element of water as well as indicator of the contemporary experience with the substance. While I cannot put a definite statement on the message of the exhibition, I feel it was organized gauge our reaction to water, whether it be physically or the image. At the entrance of the exhibit space, a sculpture made from a fishing net and filled with bottled water hangs above. Even before we enter the space we are confronted with a modern dilemma associated with water, consumption and availability. The net is just above reach while also making allusions to fishing, more specifically the technique of massive harvesting and trapping. The bottled water makes the substance a commodity to be bought and sold, a luxury item available to very few. The curator is making a statement about values, the value of a substance essential to life versus the value of the item as something to be bought and sold. The piece, while powerful within context, stands alone as a statement unto itself, separate from the main installation as not to spin the viewers interpretation of the show too much. The main exhibition space however creates a flow while presenting different themed work, again falling into an engineered statement about waters relationship with human life. The themes range from the water as a element, physical properties and substance, water as geography, the depiction of water and its relationship with the space it occupies, water as an ideal, a room designated by the curator "Men in Boats, Women in Waves" plays on gender roles as well abstract associations with waters effect on our psyche, and finally water's as physical being, how water effects our selves and the world we live in. Overall I found the curation provide an adequate sampling of our relationship with water and provides a basis for further conceptual thought in regard to the substance.

A few works stood out to me as well as helped dictated an abridged curation in regard to the shows effect on my own conceptual thinking.

The first work I chose is the Maya Lin piece "Pin River-Hudson" (2009). The work came as a no brainer mostly due to my involvement in the installation. That said, I spent the most time with the piece and I was able to meditate on the "why" it was chosen for the installation. Despite her status as a high profile artist, the piece itself maps out a waterway and presents a system from start to finish in a medium not associated with fine art. The piece is both drawing and sculptural and plays on both river-systems as a construction of human mapping as well as the piece as construction made of carpentry nails.

The next piece chosen, another Maya Lin sculpture, presents a different view of water than the physical landscape. "Dewpoint 18" (2007) is important in the discourse of the exhibition as it presents two different, albeit equally valid interpretations of water from the same artist in the same show. Superficially I chose the piece as a counterpoint to the "Pin River" but I also wanted to illustrate how sculpture effects the space it is in as much as makes a statement about the theme of the exhibition. The glass orbs, arranged randomly in the corner of the room acts like the physical property of dew, drops of condensation that bead up and refract light, changing the space around them, much like the sculpture changes the space around the corner.

Hans Haacke's piece "Condensation Cube" (1963-1967) has a similar effect as "Dewpoint 18" but the effect of the condensation is more contained. Instead, Haacke turns the effect of the water in on itself and aestheticizes the property change instead of the space.

Finally to round off the space, I chose the Atul Balla piece "Immersions" 2008 in order to draw attention to the connection of the glass boxes on a pedestal as with the aforementioned work and also illustrate the effect water has on objects present in our daily lives. The pieces I chose are all sculptures as I feel water it is more visceral and can be conveyed better in the round with sculpture than with two-dimensional flatter work. My interpretation from the show is water literally seeps into all aspects of my human experience, whether it is the daily intake in order to stay hydrated, to the more political question of "Why can't I drink the water from the net?"