Mason Gross Gallery Shows: WLCM BCK

The MFA and Faculty show, WLCM BCK, was a very interesting show to go through. I think in part this was due to the fact that there were such a variety of artists involved. The second year MFA students, some faculty (my own teachers included), a tribute, and a visiting artist’s work, fill the gallery with variety. I think its very interesting that all the works were hung at 60’’ in center, until that moment my I had only ever considered hanging things in galleries by lined up tops or bottoms. Needless to say mind my was momentarily blown, which is when I really began to see how interesting the whole evolution of this show from start to finish was through Caetlynn’s narration of her experience.  I think that its extremely helpful to learn about the different hurdles that are overcome in putting up a show, because its showing me things I’ve never thought about before.  On a more personal note, just from my perspective as a student and knowing the personalities of the artists behind these impressive works, I found it funny and wonderful that the one work which was the exception to the 60’’ rule was left out of place and not aligned later with the rest of the works on that wall. It unintentionally says something about the quirks of this art school, given that the artists making the show also make up part of the identity of our school. Plus its humorous by itself, even for someone who isn’t thinking philosophically about it because it looks out of place, and so it draws attention to that back wall.

In terms of the show itself, I focused particularly this time on the installations of the four video/media installations, that is, the works by Ardele Lister, Damien Catera who are faculty at Mason Gross and two other works by Jim Toia, the visiting artist. The installation in Jim Toia's "Dissolving Gardens"was very dream like for me, and I attribute this to the size of the room and the two screens relations to each other. I don’t know if they were intended as two individual works or one complete work called "Dissolving Gardens", but either way they really engaged the entire room, with the motion the works each displayed and the space that their screens occupied. Additionally each had unique attributes such as the left sides mushrooms, i.e. 3-dimensional sculptural elements, and the right side of the rooms large monitor and strange transparent wall surrounding it. A fellow viewer near me commented that she did not like that transparency; it made it feel lacking something. I thought it this was an interesting contrasting perspective to think about. It also cements for me that this structure plays an important role in how this piece is experienced.

The other room I wanted to specifically focus on was the video room in the far back, featuring the works of Ardele Lister and Damien Catera. Both these pieces have similar elements of video display, in size, in the relative space occupied in the room. Damien’s implements speakers and Ardele’s implements color, so both solidly occupy space in the room as solo works, while nicely complementing each other because of their similarities.

 

To get a better feel for how these videos played off of one another in their respective room spaces, play them two at a time together here and imagine that surrounding you in physical space.