PAUSE
The Stamp Gallery
1220 Stamp Student Union , Adele Stamp Memorial Union, The University of Maryland
Mon–Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri-Sat 11am-4pm
One of the greatest things about art is that when it is given the proper attention, it can stop busy people dead in their tracks and give them a chance to reflect on otherwise unexplored and marginalized topics. PAUSE, an exhibition curated by Alexandra Douglas-Barrera, Fernando Ramirez and Alison Reilly at the Stamp Student Union Gallery at the University of Maryland College Park, features three artists who have chosen to use simple, elegant compositions to express deep, complicated ideas. The quiet nature of the exhibit—there is no color in any of the works—unites the variety of media in which the artists have chosen to work. There is a profound feeling of emptiness in the room, as each artist utilized scarcity and anonymity in both subject and style.
Elizabeth Crisman, Spineless, 2008, ink jet transparencies. Photo courtesy of The Stamp Gallery.
Elizabeth Crisman’s work addresses the types of information that humans leave behind, and demonstrates how little something as deeply personal as an x-ray actually says about a person. Crisman buys old x-rays on Ebay, inverts them, and then prints them as photograms on person-sized strips of black and white photo paper. She arranges the x-rays to look like bones from archaeological digs. The bones reveal nothing about the person they belong to, and the anonymous nature of the x-rays is unsettling. The x-rays are intensely private objects and yet they say nothing about who a person is. Spineless is a series of inkjet transparencies of spinal cord x-rays. They hang from the ceiling in a long line that curls onto the floor. The spine is vital in connecting the brain to the rest of the body, but these spines lead nowhere and connect to nothing but each other.
Lu Zhang, Beard 3, 2007, pen on paper. Photo courtesy of The Stamp Gallery.
Lu Zhang’s series of drawings of Chinese opera props was inspired by her recent visit to China. Zhang was born in China but grew up in Oklahoma. She is very interested in issues of race and gender as well as contemporary art in China. Zhang recently took a six-month trip to China where she was exposed to local, “homespun”* opera. The props that are used can symbolize gender, status and even morality. The idea that people can simply put on an identity is very compelling for Zhang. Zhang’s drawings feature only props, beards and headdresses, and completely leave out the actor who would occupy them. The stark, haunting drawings float on the paper, definitions defining no one.
Laura Hughes, Thaw, 2009, wood, enamel, pinecones, monofilament. Photo courtesy of The Stamp Gallery.
Laura Hughes’ installations have a cataclysmic aesthetic. She works in wood, glass, steel, foam and chalk to create suspended moments of destruction and decay. Hughes believes that memories are stories that become further from the truth of the event with each passing moment. Thaw is an installation of suspended old wood planks stepped upwards towards an explosion of black-painted pinecones. The event that inspired the piece is unidentified, but the ragged chalk-covered wood planks and the black pinecones speak of a dark moment. The steps lead nowhere and hang precariously by transparent plastic strings. The pinecones move slightly in the wind created by the movement of people in the gallery, like a wind chime of deadening silence.
Each artist’s work is a memory of a moment and a person, nameless and concealed. Their works are like artifacts and puzzle pieces. Crisman, Zhang and Hughes force their audience to reconsider knowledge taken for granted. The artists ask for pause and reflection on about how much is actually known about this world and the individual people that inhabit it.
-Ophra Paul
PAUSE is on view at the Stamp Gallery until July 25th.
*Bmore Art, Lu Zhang at Randall Scott Gallery, Interview by Cara Ober.
I am a believer in full disclosure. Alison Reilly who writes for this blog and is a personal friend, was one of the co-curators of this exhibit. I do not believe this inhibited my ability to explain the works in the show but in fact gave me access to more information so I could better understand the exhibit.
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