Press Archive

“Enter / Exit,” Artweek, September 2005
Charlene Roth

Context shapes perception. A point Durrell also noted when he wrote “We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.” Five individual artists plus a collaborative pair lend further credence to this supposition in “Enter / Exit – the uncommon landscape”, an exhibit of diverse visual constructions elicited by and/or appropriated from the environment or the landscape they inhabit.

Minimalist artists in the late 1960s through early 1970s were among the first to foreground context as an essential element of a work. Context, or the space/landscape wherein a site-specific art object is placed, was considered by them to be responsible, in large part, for the meaning of hte work. For example, Tony Smith’s unadorned steel rectangle “Cube” was a meditative art object in a sculptural garden, but not necessarily one in a steel yard. The artists in “Enter / Exit” play with the notion and choose to take from the landscape (objects, experiences, views) and represent this material in the gallery – revisiting, but also manipulating the minimalists’ example while reaffirming the concept of the landscape.

The term “landscape”, as paraphrased in the “Enter / Exit” press release, was the first recorded in [the English language] in 1598. Borrowed as a painters’ term form the Dutch during the sixteenth century, it originally meant a region or tract of land. When it was adopted in English it had an artistic flavor and meant a picture depicting scenery or land. Interestingly, thirty-four years passed between the word’s initial appearance in print to describe a painting and its now common usage as a descriptor for a view. Landscape as illusion appears to have come first.

Merging both concepts – presenting an illusion of a view sited within a region, or employing the context of that region as an element – seems the aim for this collection of works. The idea is complex and, understandably, the responses are eclectic and subjective but importantly not simply autobiographical. Tyler Hudson’s “Transformed Shopping Carts” are an example. These sculptures are clearly a personal & darkly humorous interaction with, and reaction to, the landscape of Los Angeles, yet they offer numerous avenues for interpretation. “Metro-sexual Cart” is a pink painted contraption equipped with a cheese tray and a wine rack destined to be fully loaded for interaction by attendees of the gallery reception and during those moments it is akin to a prop in a short play by Samuel Beckett.

Sandra Low pursues a different tact to examine a specific psychological/philosophical landscape. She paints big-eyed portraits of Asian girls engaged in disquieting behaviors. In a piece titled, “Joy”, the subject has green Prozac caps over her front teeth and leers like a new-age vampire for the oil-painted canvas which is rolled around fat wooden rods to appear as a faux scroll. Likewise, in “Harmony (bombunny)”, the girl, who is wearing a headband sporting gray balloon bunny ears shaped like bombs, is pinching and pulling her face into a contortion. Low, as did Hudson, has immersed herself in a personal journey through a landscape and we the viewers are presented with uncommon artifacts and/or views culled form that experience. It is up to the viewers to assemble an accompanying narrative as a means to enter into & share the experience.

All of the artists, with the exception of Sam Gezari, are primarily focused on west Coast urban phenomenon though this does not preclude a global reading as the ideas transcend regional issues. Gezari illustrates this point with a series of painterly photographs of prideful citizens riding their lawnmowers as they inspect the bit of American landscape that they own. These photos were taken on the east Coast but the transfer is seamless. On a recent trip to Home Depot, I immediately flashed back to Gezari’s images: Overloaded carts – California homeowners grooming their personal property – streamed endlessly toward a row of cashiers.

All in all, “Enter / Exit - the uncommon landscape” is a thought provoking, introspective and cohesive event. I credit Leora Lutz with an insightful curatorial stance. The works on display hang together, inform one another and, in combination, support the concept that drives the exhibition. This is a rare feat.

(other artists in the exhibit included Susie White, Pete Goldust & Julie Hughes, and Cindy Suriyani)

See images from the exhibit: Enter / Exit – the uncommon landscape