Anchorage Daily News

INTERNATIONAL GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART: Exhibits by Suzanne Proulx, Angela Forster and Valerie A. Bodar continue through June 29 at the gallery, 427 D St., 279-1116 or www.igcaalaska.org. Hours are 5:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays.

I heard that to make good spaghetti, the sauce should be spread lightly on top of the noodles. One should not try to flavor the noodles themselves. I thought about that while contemplating what’s cooking in the three installations currently being shown at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art.

Judging from the spicy titles and artists’ statements, there should be much to stomach in all three shows. But I wonder how much flavoring was spread over the surface and how much juicy content is really blended into the art.

An artist can feed the eye by producing art that is esthetic — even pretty. Other works may be less decorative but still have an essence of beauty in a less conventional sense. There is a politic in contemporary art that has been refined now for nearly a century. Certain artists are able to challenge our sensibilities and still make us think that the work is “pleasing,” even if we have to develop a taste for it. I think all three shows look good, but they don’t quite live up to the recipes contained in some of the statements. Some of the “artspeak” is hard to swallow.

DUST AS ART

Pennsylvania artist Suzanne Proulx’s “Household Forensics” is most successful at blending the elements of form and content. Still, the playful references and cuteness embodied in some references belies the seriousness inherent not only in household domesticity but subjects like “Witness.” Based on a poem by Carolyn Forche, the artist represents victims of war by ears made of dust placed upon the gallery walls. The Proulx installation is meaningful and well crafted. Based on her stated need to balance creativity and domesticity, she masterfully melds the material detritus of her household into subtle and sensitive works of art.

“Dust Bunnies” are rabbits she sculpted from lint and the familiar bits and pieces from a household vacuum. The animals appear lifelike, even animated but on close contact show signs of their inevitable ruin. They are symbols, she says, of rebirth.

Proulx cast her family’s hands in soap in a series entitled “Hand Soaps.” By their refined surfaces, relaxed poses and intensely personal character, they form poignant and (no pun intended) touching representations of their very human counterparts. The fragile hands of babies, made of soap, are like the marble skins of a Michelangelo.

The Proulx show also contains some brushes — toothbrushes and hairbrushes. Some contain hair from the artist herself — some black, some gray. Some contain teeth from her son. The brushes are both clinical and kinky, comical and caring.

Dust art is not as rare as some might think. Kim Brown carefully documented her collected household dryer lint and dust in an installation in the International gallery a few years ago. Xu Bing of China recently won a major British art award for his installation made of dust collected from Ground Zero.

FIRE AND WATER

Here, Colorado artists Angela Forster and Valerie A. Bodar share the gallery’s center space. Forster’s “Red Woman Walking” is a digital and computer print installation that explores gesture and motion. The intent and process are unclear from the posted statement. For example, the artist writes that the “trapped’ gestures are “both rational and irrational.”

Still, one can appreciate the gesture studies, the animated motions and crisp printed style, their sublimated content aside. The figure, stripped of character and emotion, is represented only by line and motion. The nature of the reduction process dehumanizes, which is exacerbated by the mechanized printing. “Elemental Transmutations” by Valerie A. Bodar includes seven wall-hung screens showing video representations of fire and water. Alchemical metals in test tube-type vials are fastened below each screen and matched with an “agent of change.”

In her statement, Bodar contends the installation “explores the alchemical concept that all forms of matter are one and becomes conscious through an evolutionary process.”

An accompanying, (superimposed) two-channel projected video by Bodar is entitled “Fragileness of Bone.” In the video, images of landscape, animal bone and architecture slowly float past each other in a style unfortunately characteristic of early video games.

Installations of video and banks of small screens to show art are not new. Many artists have used the idea of small vials, as well. It is also a challenge for any artist today to keep the attention of the public focused on small screen presentations. We live in a world of them now.

The three shows are a plateful. They fill the areas nicely and invite the viewer to sample. The shows are not eye candy but palatable as spaghetti.

Don Decker is an Anchorage artist, teacher and writer. He is a former co-director of the International Gallery of Contemporary Art.

ADVERTISEMENT