TBA’s visual installations are on display at Washington High School,
531 SE 14th, opening reception Thurs Sept 3, 8-10:30 pm; gallery hours
daily Sept 4-13, noon-6:30 pm; and Thurs-Fri noon-6:30 pm, Sat-Sun
noon-4 pm, Sept 17-Oct 18, free
IN PAST YEARS, the TBA Festival has been criticized for its
inaccessibility—for showcasing works that relied heavily on
conceptual elements. While there’s nothing wrong with conceptual art,
it occasionally neglects the visual experience—the part of the
exchange that inspires a viewer to engage with the concept. In short,
the work must create a point of access before it can communicate a
concept, and there are several exhibits in this year’s programming
which promise to do just that.
Stephen Slappe, instructor in intermedia at the Pacific Northwest
College of Art, is a multidisciplinary artist who clearly relates his
concept to an accessible product. Slappe says he’ll explore
“contemporary cultural indoctrination” in We Are Legion, a
web-based photo exhibit of children in Halloween costumes. Not only are
Halloween costumes strong visual evidence of cultural indoctrination,
but Slappe will use one of our society’s most prevalent modes of
cultural dissemination—the internet—to share these
evidences. Slappe says that while the project is web based, “There will
be a scanning station set up at Washington High School where people can
bring in original photos to be scanned and added to the website.”
Slappe takes accessibility seriously, inviting anyone and everyone to
submit photos online at welcometothelegion.org.
Winnipeg’s Daniel Barrow has also created a piece that promises high
accessibility, titled Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry, which
recounts a trash collector’s mission “to create an independent phone
book.” Barrow describes Every Time—which he creates live
on an overhead projector—as a “‘manual animation,’ a hybrid of a
cartoon [and] graphic novel [with a strong] relationship to Victorian
‘magic lantern’ moving picture shows.” Barrow summarizes the plot: “In
the late hours of the night, [the protagonist] sifts through garbage,
collecting personal information, and then traces a portrait of each
citizen through the windows of their homes as they sleep. A deranged
killer is trailing him, murdering each citizen he includes in his book,
thus rendering his cataloguing efforts obsolete.”
While Barrow declined comment on the conceptual intent of Every
Time, the plot can be taken as a statement on making art, how in
recording an object its relationship with the artist becomes
irrevocably changed, deadened in its laborious reproduction. Barrow
will also present a video collection of public access television from
Manitoba, Winnipeg Babysitter, which he says “describes the
various and outrageous biographies of local television producers and
personalities.” (Washington High School, Thurs Sept 10, 10:30 pm,
$8-10)
Where Barrow avoids explaining his concepts and symbols, others do
so prolifically. One such artist is New York’s Fawn Krieger, who says
she’ll explore themes of “domestic movement” in her sculptural
installation National Park. “I am building a national park as
stage-set,” says Krieger—one that gallerygoers will be able to
walk into and move around in. While Krieger asserts that “trust” is her
medium, she’ll be using the more literal supplies of “wood, concrete,
felt, fabric, tar, and foam” to construct her national park, which was
inspired by a road trip she took with her family in 1984.
Krieger says National Park will inform “domestic movement” by
approaching the installation “from the place of physically moving
through our own country… looking into the more psychological layers
of where shifts—personal, social, political
movement—begin… in home spaces. I’m also thinking a lot about
the history of national parks as a stage for consumption (tourism), and
a promoter of nationalist ideologies (war).” Krieger takes a shotgun
approach, listing many potential symbolic values, guaranteeing that one
will stick to her recreated landscape. Conceptual confusion aside,
National Park sounds like it’ll be fully engaging, likely to
create the intrigue needed for the exploration of her many symbolic
intentions.
While these artists achieve varying degrees of clarity in explaining
their conceptual goals, all three guarantee intriguing entry points
into their work, promising TBA attendees accessible (and rewarding)
experiences.