Gallery Visit: Burchfield Penny Gallery

The Exhibit:
The Exhibit that I visited today was called "McCallum Tarrry: Intersections" at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. The theme of the exhibit was about social justice and race. It was mostly about African American race issues, but also dealt with the issue of homelessness.

The Gallery:
The lighting was not overwhelming, but only bright as necessary. There were sky-lights that provided natural light and there was artificial light, but not florescent. One room of this exhibit was very dimly lit to allow for viewing of a video installation. The walls were mostly white, but one had a very beautiful opalescent wallpaper with a red pattern. The architecture of this gallery incorporated concrete brick, glass and stainless steel. The viewer might move through the main entrance to the large open hall under the skylight, then move right through this room. The curve of the right half of this room will bring one either to the stairs to the 2nd floor or into the dimly lit room that had the video art.


Questions about the artwork:
The artworks are mostly organized by series or project. Many small pieces of one series are clustered on one or two walls, in no particular order. Others are neatly spaced in horizontal rows. Then on the curved wall, different projects seem to "intersect" and are clustered together in no particular order, from floor to ceiling. Two pieces done on sheets of silk were hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room.The artworks are similar in that they are mostly all portraits of people. They all used photographic or video media. Most of them are done on silk or linen. They were different because in subject matter, they all span different eras in America. All of the artworks were framed in simple,thin, white or silver frames. The artwork was labeled with white tags that contained the title, artist, medium and date.




Art Criticism Exercise:

"Endurance" 2003

Description: This series was listed with just one title, but encompassed many photographs and a video project by Bradley McCullum and Jacqueline Tarry.  It is entitled "Endurance", and was made in Seattle, WA in 2003. This art team created a video that captures homeless teens, standing on a street corner for one hour at a time each, while the rest of the action is shown through sped up time-lapse. The video is narrated by the individual teens who tell about their experiences and feelings being homeless. It also incorporated a series of large c-print photographic images of each youth against a black background. Each of the people depicted look straight forward with neutral or stern expressions on their faces.
      "Endurance" emphasize the elements of rhythm and motion in the video, as there is a certain rhythm to the actions that occur in this street scene as time goes on, yet the individuals who are narrating remain stationary. The design type was straight-forward and realistic.I think that the black color that is Incorporated in the background of each portrait could have been used to evoke emotions certain emotions about the dark, dangerous and desperate life of living on the streets. This work definitely created the emotional reaction that  the artists intended to, which I believe was to raise concern for homeless youth. The individual stories and portraits made this condition seem very real and sad. I think this piece strove to shine light
 on how people can come into these circumstance and highlight them as unique and individual.

   The second artwork that I  will critique is called "Bearing", also created by McCallum and Terry. They are a married couple that collaborate to make these art projects. "Bearings" was created in 2006, and it is a series of several photographs printed on a very large scale with toner on silk. This series depicts several African American mothers holding their infants as they look into the camera. The women are photographed against a gold-leaf background. Apparently the women shown helped in some way to paint the gold-leaf background. There are about three pieces like this in the series, which are hung from the ceiling on transparent silk. I believe that color is the element that plays the larges role in this pieces composition. The gold background definitely has an effect on the subjects and is associated with certain feelings. The transparent design also plays a role in this composition, allowing artwork int the background to become a part of the piece
      Byzantine Iconography is clearly referred to in this piece. We see these women are compared to the "Madonna and Child" imagery that we see in Byzantine art and throughout art history, The gold-leaf background is also reminiscent of this iconography.I believe that this work was meant to show these teen mothers in a proud and honorable light. Rather than the shame that society places on teen moms, this work shows the beauty of motherhood and how proud these mothers are of their children. I took this from the saintly position and gold background that we see so often in religious portraits of Mary and Baby Jesus.

The last piece that I will critique is called "The Evidence of Things Not Seen". It is an series of oil paintings on linen, overlapped with toner on silk, and also incorporates an audio element. This series includes dozens of smaller-scale paintings of mugshots of people that were arrested as a result of the Montgomery Bus Strike. The artists did  not do these paintings, but commissioned others to paint them. The paintings omit the arrest record number, but the silk photographic image of the same mugshot is placed over this with the original arrest record in hand. All the pieces are done in sepia or black and white tones.
 The elements of unity and rhythm are used in this piece, with the similar mugshot image used over and over. The way these paintings were arranged reminded me of the way that people often arrange portraits of family members on their walls. I think that the artist intended to evoke an emotion of sympathy and injustice. The audio that accompanied told the narrative of people who were effected by police brutality in Montgomery at this time in the Civil rights battle. The audio and the images worked to stir up many emotions about this horrible scar on American History. I think the portraits were done to show the protesters positions of dignity and honor for standing up for their rights.

     

I really thought that overall, this experience of visiting the gallery and looking at facet purposefully was very helpful to understanding how to look at art in a museum. So often we go to a museum and just dash from exhibit to exhibit and piece to piece, never giving thought to the important questions of art criticism. We ignore the gallery spaces effect on the work and the small details. This allowed me to take time and really consider the works of art.