Monday, December 13, 2010

Artist Responses

I attended Karley Klopfenstein's talk at the Boyden Art Gallery, with the yarn tank as the main exhibit. Immediately I saw that Karley is not afraid to combine sensitive subjects like war with a little bit of humour. The carpet bombs are punny, but the idea of dressing up something that killed millions is a bit unnerving. There's also the macrame M16, which I thought was a broom at first. I think that was the intention; to show how weapons are used to "sweep up" a problem. Finally there was the carpet tank, which is still unfinished. Karley wanted to show us how the process is important, and she explained how she did certain pieces of the tank. It was an interesting talk overall, and a bit educational too.

I also attended Anja Marais' talk the same day, and the pieces were a bit strange. Many of Marais' works give the feeling of something that doesn't originate from our world, and several involve water. This theme of unfamiliarity and the ocean is quite important to immigrants, who must face the initial hardships of even getting to another place before being seen as a complete outsider. While some of her pieces don't reflect this quite as much (I'm not sure what a vomiting kraken is supposed to represent), the piece with patterns drawn into a man's back seems to fit much better. Turned away with unusual, visible marks, the man does not seem familiar. Hanged Man also fits somewhat as immigrants might feel as if they're trapped in their old culture and can't get out to learn a new one. I can't make any statements from experience though.

No comments:

Post a Comment