Shane Booth (ArtSpace)

Last week, I made it back down to Plant Zero's Art Space for the Shane Booth show. Its interesting how similar in concept it was to Guidotti's which I accidentally went to looking for Booth. Both artists seem to have been taking a humanitarian approach to their photos to make a statement to the viewer. Their methods, however, were a bit different. Guidotti showed disabled children in "normal" settings, displaying "normal" characteristics. In striking contrast, Booth portrayed his humanitarian thesis in a representative way. The models in his photographs were meant to represent the exile and discomfort of living in this society with HIV.
Both these artists' approaches were effective, however, Booth's compositions struck me more intensely. I understand the concept, and was able to interpret without being quite as spoon-fed.. I think it was very important conceptually, for example that in every photo, the model's eyes were hidden, emphasizing the feeling of exile and being identified only as a monster or freak. I also could really identify with the positioning of the bodies. In most photos, the model was shown in some kind of recoiled or inhuman position which emphasizes the discomfort and strain put on people carrying the disease. In fact, as a viewer of these images, I was made uncomfortable and very uneasy, which is exciting. To me, art that makes me feel that intensely, in any direction, is good art.

Paul Shambroom (Artist Lecture)

I attended the Paul Shambroom's lecture last Wednesday. I found his images as well as his lecture itself very exciting. The theories behind his images, although not groundbreaking, were in my opinion, masterfully presented through his compositions. It was also very interesting to here his explanations for his work and also the executions. I had never considered the effects of the 911 attacks on the art world, but it makes sense Shambroom's imagery capabilities were severely stunted due to the terrorism. I found it very useful that he spoke on these topics as well as techniques to use to get permission to photograph certain things, like corporations and government areas.
From Shambroom's lecture, I started to consider the connection between documentary and artistic images. Only hearing the background of Shambroom's work, I would probably label it documentary. After seeing it however, I absolutely consider it art. I especially enjoyed the images taken from within the factories. I believe they were as much about chaos, form and color theory as a document of the factory. I also enjoyed the imposing images of war machines, namely the submarine. I have an irrational fear of submarines.

Positive Exposure (Rick Guidotti)

In a thwarted attempt to make it to Plant Zero for the Shane Booth exhibition this weekend, (it closed before I got there) I stumbled upon a gallery within ArtWorks displaying a photographic series by Rick Guidotti. I later learned Guidotti was formerly a fashion photographer, but then went on to found Positive Exposure, a foundation to erase the stigma commonly accompanying children and adults with disabilities and diseases. The series at ArtWorks were portraits of mostly children, all with disabilities or diseases.
The children were displayed in their normal environments and shown doing things healthy children are pictured doing. This was seemingly the point of the series--to move away from picturing disabled children in a sad environment and a generally negative light. In this sense, the series really worked, in my opinion. I also think it was interesting that children pictured in certain groups based on their health issues did not all look the same or severely generalized. In fact, some of these children looked perfectly healthy, which is also important in breaking the stereotype that disabilities have to be hugely disfiguring. The series was very effective at shining a light of equality on children with health problems and disabilities.
I also think it was important that the portraits were not accompanied by narratives. I feel like the context behind the disability would only make the viewer feel sorry for the subject, by reinforcing that he or she was, in fact, different from a "normal" kid. This would have been counter-intuitive when Guidotti was portraying equality and a light-hearted portrait of a universal kid.
It's kind of funny I stumbled upon this work looking for Shane Booth's considering they both seem to be humanitarian in nature.

First Friday (Feb 2009)

I attended First Friday this month and looked at some of the galleries around Broad and Marshall streets. The first one I walked through was Gallery 5, which was showing a piece by various different artists that seemed to be their reactions to being sexually assaulted. This exhibition was not my favorite aesthetically that night, but was the one which made the most impact. The pieces combined with the way they were presented were truly haunting to me at first. After seeing them as a group, however, I got a much different feeling of release from the expressions within the pieces. It seemed to me that these media were the artists way of expressing and then maybe letting go of their fear or isolation, or whatever else they must have been feeling. Some people use music, others artistic expression. Obviously these pieces were not a complete remedy, but I saw most of them as tremendous release for the artists.
On the other hand, individually, some of the pieces in this collection continued to haunt me. This makes me feel as though they were not about letting go, but instead about heavily introverted examinations into dark worlds of memories. Although these pieces were the most horrifying, they were the ones I examined the closest.
I also really enjoyed the large-scale canvases hung in the 1708 Gallery. I was really drawn to the geometric paint-globs that seemed to be being launched at top speed from one canvas to the next. This, I would say, was the most aesthetically pleasing exhibition. It was refreshing to look at pieces focused on form, color, lines and texture after being sort of smacked in the face with the context of the Gallery 5 pieces.

Maggie (Emmet and Elijah Gowin at Page Bond Gallery)

I attended the Emmet and Elijah Gowin exhibition at the Page Bond Gallery last week. The series, titled Maggie, was an emotionally connected and retrospective set of works about the Gowin's neighbor, Maggie. The series worked as sort of a biography, except this biography jumped past a large chunk of Maggie's life. This jump was very intriguing to me, though, because it showed where Emmet started his study of this woman and then where his son, Elijah picked up years later. This in itself was the most interesting part of the series, because it wasn't a study of one artist, or of multiple, but disconnected artists. It was a series of photographs from a father and son, which gave the viewer a sense of interconnectedness. It worked so well together not only because of the connectedness of the artists, but also paralleled a connectedness of the artists to the subject. The slight variations in the two artists works represented an interesting variation of their respective relationships with Maggie.
At first glance of the series, I honestly didn't get all of this out of it. I initially saw it as a quirky set of portraits of family members, which a lot of emphasis on Maggie. Then I read the piece by Emmet's wife about the background for this work and I was able to view the piece with a much more interested motive. I really appreciated the relationship the two artists must have had with this woman. They were not actually related, but had such a close tie with Maggie that they may as well had been family. There's something about this development of makeshift family which occurs in society which truly intrigues me. How can someone unrelated to you become such a driving force in your life? Could this person become closer to you than your actual family? If this happens, is that morally right? These questions mean a great deal to me because I have "makeshift cousin" who could practically be my sister, and a real first cousin who I barely see or talk to. This series, Maggie, really helped me put these ideas into perspective.