Lo Res at Eclipse Gallery
Exhibition on View in Artists Loft Complex in North Adams
By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 31, 2007
Los Res
Curated by Erin Coughlan
August 18 through September 9
Eclipse Gallery
243 Union Street #102
North Adams, Mass. 01247
Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 12- 5 PM
http://www.eclipsemill.com
This exhibition has been curated by Erin Coughlan, a mixed media artist
( http://www.onigirl.com ) and resident of the Eclipse Mill artist loft complex in North Adams, Mass. For this project she called on colleagues several of whom work in the video game industry, web design, graphic design and fabrication. For most of the participants it is unusual to present their work in the context of a gallery. This contributes to the freshness and energy of much of the work but also underscores some of the limitations of the project where the works more often seems to relate to individual statements than meshing into a coherent whole. Some of this is immediate and compelling while other works are daunting and off putting.
One of the most successful works is a video created while traveling cross country by the Hungarian born artist, Lajos Kamocsay. The Road Trip Project was created during a cross country drive with three dogs in a restored 1965 Airstream trailer. He shot 3271 frames of his journey, one photo every minute, using a digital camera rigged to the dash. The images were shot during five days on the road. They are presented unedited in a staccato blur. It is an Easy Rider for the video age. The piece is viewed on a laptop next to digital prints with grids of the images. He is an animation artist who has worked for Disney, Dreamworks, the Cartoon Network and Nickelodian. You may visit his site at http://www.panka.com/lajos .
Frankly I didn't know quite how to respond to the large, pixilated printouts of Victorias Dead, American Dream Ghoul, Zombie of Liberty by Mitchell W. Fletcher. There are three large digital prints mounted on canvas that depict young ladies in bikinis with blood gushing down from their gaping mouths. They have apparently just gnawed into fleshy victims and there is a harrowing expression on their faces. The artist statement says "While I don't definitely know what these images are about (because I can't be fully objective about my own mind), I can speculate that they are based on my confusion and growing sense of insanity I feel being a participant in the current global climate. While it is nearly impossible to find the truth with the majority of media, religions, and governments run by corporations and individuals with their own control agenda (as they have been throughout history), I continue to stumble upon horrible, psychosis inspiring tragedies that I never knew of beforeÂ…" Indeed.
For What Is Tiger? a group of artists in the video game industry were asked to produce a series of rapid sketches. The results have been posted on a kind of bulletin board and reflects the process by which a video might be developed from a range of different approaches. The resultant group effort is very absorbing. A statement reads that "What Is Tiger? is a snapshot of the lifecycle and creation of a game; something that is the accumulation of hours of creative and collaborative effort." That notion was conveyed most effectively.
The sculptural piece by Ryan Paddy Whatever You Want It To Be is mounted from floor to ceiling. It is a rather flat and pointy piece suggesting a road marker with arrows indicating different destinations. This has been combined with text much of which is difficult to comprehend. This conundrum is further emphasized by a statement in which the artist writes that "Ryan Paddy's art is whatever you want it to be." Yes, butÂ…
The six pastel drawings by Jaydee Alley are arranged as a group Excerpts from Ethel's Passing- A Visual Tone Poem Full of Grace. Given the artist's professional work it is not surprising to relate them to a story board series about music and performance. They appear to depict animations of a Gospel singer. The images are fresh and expressive.
The curator, Erin Coughlan, has several works in the exhibition placed so that they are broken up and meant to be viewed as different approaches and visual statements. One piece, GodBlocks, in collaboration with Alex Chouls, involve an image of a Buddha which has been mounted on board and sliced into cubes to form a relief pattern. The statement says that "Science and Religion, Math and Art; what seem to be diametrically opposed are brought together here. The collage features rendered fractals and a contemporary (circular) periodic table." Coughlan included two other pieces, I Love Shanghai, a multi layered photo collage derived from images created while visiting that city, and, Water, an image of the head of a woman combining mixed media, watercolor and rendered fractals.