Saturday, October 11, 2014

Alyson Shotz: Force of Nature @ Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton NY October 11 2014




"You know you're getting somewhere when you don't have to print out your own artists statements to hand out anymore because they stencil it right onto the wall ..."



"White Fold" -- Very difficult to see what the hell this is but it's the most technically impressive work of visual art I've seen in quite a while. Comprised of like 10,000 pins tied together by a half mile of thread/string and as taught as the rigging on a suspension bridge. I asked Alyson how the hell she thought of it and the answer was she wanted to make a colossal drawing without drawing. And I responded I've always wanted to make a painting without paint. This lady rules.



So the lines are like channels of stronger current / less frequency of space between the pins, resulting in a concentration of the resultant lines the thread forms.


Hamilton College students assisted in the execution of this piece and that would be one sweet little resume notch to have for your museum studies or sculpture major.


Try viewing in fullscreen mode or downloading the image to desktop to view fullsized. I was actually amused watching people trying to get a decent shot of these things after concluding on my own it would be impossible. Art that not only resists being photographed but makes the act of trying to document it wholly futile. You HAVE to see it in person, in the gallery.



Some video of the work, though that may just be even more confusing.


Pix by ArtCat!  ;>~


I thought it kind of looked like a big fish from across the room. The netting connotation also made me think of fish, or fishing. Anyway, go see this.


Enormous steel wire sculpture -- once again resembling a sort of fishing net -- with the threads once again so gossamer thin that trying to make a picture of it was an act of frustration. Gave up quickly and was amused by watching other people give it the old college try.


With Catherine Wright! <3 Here interpreting Alyson's use of the wire to define the space of the gallery rather than occupy it.


Ogling the lights! I'll need to start calling these my Light Porn shots where I'm drooling over how safe looking, well-installed and robust the lighting system is at a given venue. Can't wait to relate to interns someday on how I had to climb a 14 foot ladder to turn on the lights in my first gallery.


Heh ... busted  ;]


Where is Mel Bochner when we need him. This was right up his alley. 
And quick! whats that font??









"Good or effective art is distinguished by how it leads to or suggests more art. In that sense art is like mathematics: It either breeds itself or leads to a dead end."



Love it!!!




Video projection booth, time lapse film loop of a year in this room from the same vantage point. Watched about 20 minutes of it and was not bored for a second.


The Hero Wall mural, more intricate & detailed than Richard Dadd's wildest vision of a completed painting.


With the artiste! Nice lady, seeing this show taught me things and gave me ideas. Admission was free, I got to hang with ArtCat, tour the new theater studies & visual arts studios across the street, and am going to apply for a JOB at this school. So thank YOU, my dear!


With Tom Wilson! On the faculty at Hamilton College & a longtime FB contactee, we rapped about the Macartovin Building project for a while and he totally knew I was there taking notes.


Ohhh my ...... my my my.


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