Highlights: Craft Tech/Coded Media: women, art & technology at BMOCA

A great little show at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) just ended this past week, titled Craft Tech / Coded Media: women, art & technology. The show was curated by Deanne Pytlinksi, a professor of Art History, Theory and Criticism at Metropolitan State University in Denver. Pytlinksi has always been interested in gender and video art throughout her career, having wrote her dissertation on the subjects, and continued to examine the role of gender in technology in this exhibition. Through the lens of contemporary female artists, some of whom were early pioneers of video art and multi-channel installations, Pytlinksi seeks to question the relationship between gender and technology in an increasingly digital age. Below are some highlights I found particularly interesting.

Lynn Hershman Lesson, Room of One's Own, 1990-1993 video still from interactive installation, print: 30 x 40 in.

In this piece by Lynn Hershman Lesson, we see the image of a cyborg seductress from her Cyborg series. Emerging in late 20th-century science fiction, the term "cyborg," when applied in popular culture, refers to a part human/part robot character that has enhanced abilities due to technology (think Inspector Gadget, Star Trek, and RoboCop). The idea conveys a concern over the increasing digital culture at the time and the fear that technology could/would take over nature (an issue that continues to proliferate our world today). As Lesson explains in the show, feminists surprisingly embraced the cyborg as a means to separate the relationship between women and nature, a "clique" association which feminists felt women were subjected to. Lesson's cyborg above shows a figure that meets conventional beauty standards and holds a glamor reminiscent of old Hollywood movies. Despite her captivating gaze, the woman is pointing a gun directly at her viewer (us) in a dangerous yet seductive way. Lesson further supports this framework with the title of her work, "A Room of One's Own," the title of Virgina Woolf's extended essay published in 1929 (and one of my favorite books). This title conjures up images of the beautiful and quiet women depicted in Impressionist paintings of the late 18th-century, of ladies in waiting and of the overall expectations of women in society. Still, all of the points Lesson engages with in this piece continue to hold a lot of relevance in society today.

Krysten Cummingham, Tapestry X, 2013, cotton, dye, galvanized steel, wire

Krysten Cunningham's fiber structure, made up of 8 hanging screens woven from everyday synthetic material, was created by the artist as a site-specific installation for BMoCA. Known for her work in sculpture and video, Cunningham's interest lies in crafts of the 1960's- 1970's as well as "utopian mathematical and scientific theories in geometric forms," according to Pytlinksi. Working with a heavily gendered material that is native to our idea of women and their history, Cummingham combines the woven tapestry with color palettes taken from computer graphics. (The work is shown next to one of her video works, 3 to 4 from 2010). Through this piece, Pytlinksi communicates the artist's efforts to re-gender the modernist era of science and architecture that was dominated almost entirely by men. 

                                      

                                      

               

Barbara Hlali, Painting Paradise, 2008 animation (gouache on TV screen and video stills) 5:30 min.

Barbara Hlali, who's work is shown above, is a multi-media artist creating experimental animations that speak to political conflict. This animation shown in the exhibition, Painting Paradise, takes footage from real media showing the wall between Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, Iraq. Utilizing digital images seen in the media and the artistic technique of applying brushstrokes to a canvas, Hlali mimics the tactics used by Iraqi's to cover up their country's broken infrastructure with posters that depict blissful landscape scenes. We learn from Pytlinks's synopsis of the work that in Painting Paradise, the artist effectively "demonstrates that any attempt to mask the realities of war cannot be sustained." 

Other exhibition shots:

Lynn Hershman Lesson, (left to right): Digital Venus after Titian (1996), TV Legs (1990), Seduction (1998), Wrapped (2007)

Marina Zurkow, Mesocosm (Wink, Texas), 2012, custom soft-ware driven, hand-drawn animation, 144-hr cycle, dimensions variable

Beryl Korot, Yellow Water Taxi, 2003, single-channel video, 2 min., stereo sound

Beryl Korot, Babel 2, 1980, oil painting on hand-woven canvas

 

 

Marina Zurkow, Slurb, 2009

  

                   Marina Zurkow, The Thirsty Bird, 2012, HD video animation, black and white, silent video player, 8:12 min. loop

Full list of exhibiting artists include: Krysten Cunningham (b. 1973) , Susan Hazaleus (b. 1951), Lynn Hershman Lesson (b. 1941), Barbara Hlali (b. 1979), Beryl Korot (b. 1945), Marina Zurkow (b. 1962), and Kelly Monico.

Openings: Joel Swanson and Ian Fisher at MCA Denver

                                                                                                              

There was double the fun at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) on Friday night, with the openings of two exhibitions from two contemporary Denver artists: Joel Swanson and Ian Fisher. The museum galleries buzzed with a consistent and excited crowd, all coming out to celebrate these two talented locals. The combination of these shows - one an interactive exhibit that keeps people moving through the galleries (Swanson), the other a reflective and peaceful exhibit inviting guests to stand and ponder - gave the audience a varied experience.

Swanson, a 36 year old Chicago-born artist, designer and writer, currently lives and works in Denver while also serving as Director of the Technology, Arts & Media Program at UC, Boulder. His show at the MCA, Joel Swanson: Left to Right, Top to Bottom, which runs through March 30th of this year, has some great sculptures, photographs and installations that enables the viewer to discover new meanings of everyday words and symbols. The artist keeps you moving, thinking, laughing, questioning and learning in a way that makes you think twice about the English language and how we communicate.

Joel Swanson, Logic Only Works in Two Dimensions, 2014
Fabricated Aluminum and steel cable

Drawing upon linguistics and conceptual art theories from the 1960's, Swanson's sculptures and installations bring to light the complexities and ambiguity of language in modern times. His inspiration is found in that of familiar symbols, phrases and grammar; his creative process made relevant by today's technology focused and digitally driven society. Furthermore, what makes his work so successful is the way his works bring the viewer into his explorations. For example, Logic Only Works in Two Dimensions (2014) - a sculpture made of fabricated aluminum and steel cable that dangles a large-scale greater-than/less-than symbol rotating just a few feet above the floor - places the viewer in an important position of translating the symbol's meaning depending on where he or she is standing. While the "<" and ">" symbols represent the inequality between two numbers or expressions in mathematics, they also have a place in the English language as well as in the language of computer programming. Thus, Swanson points towards the dichotomy between the two symbols, ultimately revealing the fact that the meaning of a symbol can refer to it's exact opposite, and that "translation" isn't as black and white as our own understanding of communication leads us to believe. To watch a video of this piece, click here. 

Joel Swanson, t/here (2013), neon, 8" x 30"

Another highlight of Swanson's show was his piece titled "Homophone" (2013), a wall installation with a holographic surface that reads the words "right," "write," and "rite" depending on where the viewer is standing. While a homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, the piece illustrates Swanson's motivation to complicate the relationship between the images we see and the text that we read. I found Swanson's attempt to mess with the viewer to be playful as it encourages guests to move around the work to eye it from different angles. These motivations are what drive Swanson's creativity, and I must say, his aims are achieved through this process, keeping conceptual art stimulating and leaving us wanting more of his brilliance. 
 

Ian Fisher, Atmosphere No. 50 (Follow you into the Dark), 2014
Oil on Canvas

Just about the same age as his contemporary, Ian Fisher was born in the 80's in Nova Scotia, Canada, transplanting to Colorado to receive his BFA from the UC Boulder in 2006. Living and working in Denver, Fisher is currently represented by Robischon Gallery in the city's LoDo district. His show at the MCA, titled Critical Focus: Ian Fisher, on view through April 13, 2014, is the artist's first solo museum exhibition and highlights his continued exploration in painting and his interest in clouds and skyscapes as subject matter. 

Fisher's oils on canvas are large in scale, bringing his beautiful imagery face to face with the viewer with a "zoomed-in" effect. Despite painting on a two dimensional surface, Fisher's skilled hand creates so much movement that you feel as though you could be pulled from the room in which you stand and float into the dreamy, atmospheric space before you. By using photographic documentation as his source material, the artist is able to produce a snap-shot in time, allowing us to revel in quiet reflection. 

Ian Fisher, Atmosphere No. 34, 2011, Oil on Canvas

With their bold colors, which are somewhat abstract in form, these paintings are quite powerful and evoke feelings of mystery, awe, and nostalgia. Bringing to mind Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, there seems to be some cognizance of the Almighty above which pervades many of the works in this show. Who knows if that is Fisher's intention or not - maybe it's just my own nostalgic feelings while experiencing the work. Nevertheless, I found this to be an impressive quality of his work. Also impressive (maybe even more so) is the fact that Fisher is able to dodge the kind of "kitschiness" that this imagery is so often be characterized by.

For more information on these two artists, visit TANK Studios where both Swanson and Fisher are members of here in Denver. Also be sure to check out MCA Denver's website to learn more about their current exhibits, as well as their Facebook page where you'll find more pictures and installation shots of both shows.