Folded Diametric Oppositions - Erica Harney

Exploring the tensions and revealing the relationships between two opposing forces is the underlying motivation in the development of Erica Harney’s latest work. Delving in the unknown, the locus of obscured conflicts, provides Harney a method for exploring the tension inherent in the dualism of our psyches and structures. For her, this concept of the unknown reflects the disconnect between many elements in modern society, which maintain a quality of un-joinable puzzle pieces – Harney tries to bring these disparate ideas and issues together with her constructed connections.

Drawing on the Rorschach ink-blot technique, Harney builds upon this concept with oils and canvas. By folding the canvas, pushing the paints together and then pulling them apart, she reveals forms that illustrate the relationships of diametrical opposition. This multiple-fold technique and obscuring creates, instead of the flat mirror figures of a Rosharch fold, a complex language of changes and fissures on the canvas.

Two of the pieces are joined by trompe-l’oeil band-aids, bringing our focus to the space between the canvases. It is in this area of transition where her work could go deeper to delve into the psychological edges and tensions she discusses so fluently when elaborating on her motivation. This idea of edges and thresholds is echoed in the lower canvas, where a receding geometric figure suggests both an entryway and a void.

The elements of a fissure can be seen more subtly in the third piece with its central element of a spinning, falling turkey. While this piece does not communicate her explorations as clearly as the two connected canvases, the dynamic quality of motion has the bird being pulled downward into the unknown. The structural fissure brings out the line between the stable and fluid, the tension between the visible and what is just beyond in the void.

The intriguing elements and techniques Harney is developing entice the viewer’s interest in what this artist’s future will hold –providing a glimpse at what she can do with a further unfolding of the layers of opposition at the surface of this work. The nascent exploration of this concept of the unknown, growing from the development of her multi-folding technique, provides room for both technical and artistic intensification of this current theme. The ability to look with courage into the difficult places in our collective psyche, along with her passion and painterly skill give Harney a unique lens with which to interpret the world.

13,000 years of Ceramics’...and then there was Doug

Doug Peltzman is a ceramicist currently working toward his Masters of Fine Arts at Penn State University. His work deals mainly with functional objects that can be used in daily life. However, by simply looking at the work, it is apparent that Mr. Peltzman’s ceramic pieces go beyond the functional and enter into the realm of Fine Arts.

The first aspect that becomes apparent through investigating the work is that there is an overwhelming tactile quality to each piece. This draws the viewer in and beckons the individual to engage the object through touch. The hand drawn lines and ornamentation become sensitized as one holds the object. Mr. Peltzman is also able to incorporate an audible sensation with his works, specifically with the lids of the urn like structures he has created; the sound of removing the lid is quite pleasing to the ear as well as the touch. The glaze work of each piece acts like water pooling on a surface as it is effected by gravity. In addition, the line work brings a heightened awareness to the fluidity of the form as well as the function of the particular object.

Looking at the objects I am initially reminded of the home, but the objects are a supporting cast for events that may occur within the domicile. When I consider Mr. Peltzman’s work, I think of ceramics from a historical aspect of entertainment and conversation during household gatherings; similar to how the ancient Greeks utilized their ceramics. Whether it is during a dining experience or simple leisure time, these objects provoke discussion as well as a tactile interface to experience the pieces more personally.

As for their function, I feel that these pieces would be for actual use rather than kept sacred and revered. To use them simply for display would deny them of their inherent function and destroy the efforts Mr. Peltzman has put forth. Instead, these ceramics pieces provoke a need and desire within to create an occasion to which they can be utilized to their fullest extent and fulfill their destiny.

All of Mr. Peltzman’s works have an individual quality and a certain uniqueness that separates each piece from one another. Although two pieces have the same function, they are not identical in their visual form; there is no duplication that occurs. But somehow, Mr. Peltzman is able to establish a body of work by having a signature style that resonates throughout all of the works, creating a personification of himself in each and every piece.

Going Beyond the Photo

The three portraits currently on display in the Zoller Gallery by Sal Salvatore demonstrate an exploration of gesture as it relates to his sense of theatricality.

The staging of the image is apparent in the way that Sal chooses to position his subjects. This is most clearly seen in his portrait of Doug and Pam. The books do not allow the figures to get any closer while the tight clenching of the embrace does not allow them to back away. The lack of movement betrays an awareness in the image of both itself and of the viewer.

The gestures of the embrace allow the viewer to immediately identify with the figures depicted, but do not extend beyond the image. Sal begins to capture not only the gesturing of the figures, but also the gesturing of the artist in his self-portrait. The abrasive method of sanding records how and where the artist’s hand has moved; it becomes both a caress and a destructive act and contributes to the understanding of the image.

Sal’s interest in the image of the book has moved away from a direct reference and towards an interest in the object itself. Still, the book is a symbol with understood meaning that prompts the viewer to ask expected questions. Is there a transference of knowledge happening between the figures and the object? Is knowledge becoming a barrier? Are the figures part of an unknown race that sense through this object? Sal is best able to break free of this literalness in his portrait of Brian Franklin. The background and the foreground merge creating an undulating sensation. There is also a merger of technology as the green screen that is associated with the digital age morphs into and becomes the book. Or, perhaps it’s the other way around. Through the uncertainty of what is depicted, Sal creates a curiosity that allows the viewer to consider the image in a more rhizomatic way.

As Sal’s images begin to be realized on the canvas instead of the photo, I am finding myself more interested in what they are and what they allude to.

Satirical Product or Art as Commodity?

The product Garrison Gunter is offering the masses, iSurvive “Interpersonal Radiation Transmission Device,” a plastic mirror etched with Morse code, is readable from the backside in order to use the reflective side to communicate in outmoded, IN-Network style. It’s shape directly referential of the iPhone, the piece comments on the futility of keeping up to date with the most recent technology and networked communication, as well as the problem of art as commodity, Gunter tells us.

The packaging, albeit well designed for an item one might find at Spencer’s, is not reflective of a collectible, as the limited first edition number and artist’s initials insists that it is. The price Gunter offers us, just $99 to have our own satirical communication device dictates attainability in conflict with its materiality, and, conceivably, audience and interaction. Clear plastic sleeves and recycled cardstock folded and stapled to seal the package, displayed on slat board and Virgin Records style hanging system typical of a South Park figurine rather than a collectible worthy of it’s $99 price. One might argue that such collectibles as comic books have similar unsubstantial packaging, however these items already contain a history outside of the object itself, and it is the history that the object is representative of, that influences its worth in price. Gunter’s objects do not have this history.

This piece tightrope walks the line of art and design ever so closely; it does well as a clever item, with clever design and tag lines, effectively utilizing the language of retail, one so pervasive in our culture, thus easily understood by a larger audience. Then the question becomes, what moves this object from satirical product to commentary on art as commodity? The placement of the iSurvive product line within a gallery space is the only answer we are given, and this answer is not enough to sustain this argument posed by Gunter. If iSurvive, is, in fact commentary on art as commodity, then more is needed to complicating its one-sidedness, a shift towards middle ground rather than almost entirely toward product.