The first piece that caught my eye of this show was Dream Girl by Alan Prazniak. This was a smaller piece in the show but it definitely stuck out when I first walked into the gallery. It is a head that looks like the head of a pharaoh or part of ancient Egyptian pyramids. The head is covered with oil on a puzzle with a bunch of earrings on it which made it very shiny. The oil reminds me of a bunch of crayons being melted down and the wax being used to cover the head. Upon closer examination, I was able to notice that it was not the head of a pharaoh but is actually one of a female. What would be cool to find out is if this was a sculpture that the artist made of one of his female friends or if he just created it freehand. There are quite a few earrings in the head too. There are two in the place of where the heads ears would be and a bunch on the back of the head. To me it looks like the earrings on the back make up the hair of the head. Almost possibly signifying that the dream girl has shiny hair that shines like gold. It definitely draws your eyes when first walking into the gallery with its placement and shiny elements.
Behind the Dream Girl, my attention was caught by a piece made by Patrick Strzelec called Syn. It was made out of cast aluminum, limestone and stainless steel and is completely green. It has many (what I will call) arms coming from the center of the sculpture. It kind of looks like it could fall over at any minute with one false move from the viewers walking around the gallery. Syn kind of looks like a cool I am unsure of what to really take from this piece but I am oddly very drawn to it. Maybe it’s because it is green in color. I am not sure what attracts me to this piece but I feel like I want it in my house on a coffee table. Just like the Dream Girl piece it definitely is an eye catcher to draw the viewer in to figure out more about it.
Moving into the other room, I noticed a photograph taken by my photography teacher, Kate Pollard. This photograph, called Reynolds Girls, is a very intimate piece. It’s a 20 x 20 print and really invites you into the moment with these women. You can sense the intimate feelings these three women have for each other. It looks to be two granddaughters surrounding their grandmother with love and affection. The grandmother looks like she is very ill and they are helping her with everyday tasks around the house such as filling in the calendar with upcoming events. They are hovered around a kitchen table and very close together. This room was filled with things I did not really understand so it was nice to see something familiar that I could relate to and have a better understanding for. It’s placed right at eye level to engage the viewer to be at the same level with the people in the photograph like we are intruding on a very private moment. I feel somewhat like an intruder because they are both looking at the grandmother and her eyes are closed looking like she is very tired. It definitely gives you a mournful feeling as you look in on their interaction but also gives off the feelings of love, respect, and family togetherness.
The one part of this gallery show that really stuck with me and had me awed was the exhibit by Jim Toia’s Dissolving Gardens. You could hear the music coming from the enclosed room in the front of the gallery. The music alone was enough to draw me in. It was a dark room with a projection on one wall and a TV screen covered by a cloth so it looked like just the screen. Both were displaying nature scenes but the one that stuck out to me the most and really had me mesmerized was the projection on the left wall. It was a projection of waves in the background along with what looked like a tree maybe. The background was in constant motion. In front of the whole square of the projection, were a bunch of little things sticking out from the wall. Upon a closer inspection, I found that they were objects from nature; such as tree bark and mushrooms pinecones and other dead looking objects. This piece entranced me because you sometimes can’t tell what is behind the items because every time I tried to focus on the background my eyes would go cross-eyed because of the objects on the wall. The shadows from the light of the projection onto the wall give the piece more depth as well. This piece to me could possibly be showing the crumbling of earth’s plant life because all of the objects on the wall are dead. It could very well be demonstrating the decline of the world’s natural resources over time. I loved the fact that this was in its own separate room because nothing else would be able to stand with it. This is definitely an exhibit that deserves its own space and a lot of time to observe and take away what you will.
No comments:
Post a Comment