By Maria Davis
Exhibition “Mixed Bag: An assortment of Contemporary Craft” is currently on display in the VSU Dedo Maranville gallery. “Mixed Bag” is an exhibition of works by five artists. Each artist brings their own perspective to the contemporary craft components of this exhibition. The artists are Max Adrian, Emily Culver, Elyse-Krista Mische, M. Paige Ward, and Xia Zhang. The artists express the vulnerability of social issues often difficult to discuss such as: faith, sexuality, queerness, race, and death. The aims of this exhibition is to showcase the perspectives of the five artists and the harmonies that unite them together.
Is the gallery half full, or half empty? When arriving at the Dedo Maranville Gallery the exhibition seems lack thereof, due to the emptiness of the exhibitions arrangement. This emptiness creates a sort of tension that feels awkwardly unordinary. On the wall is an exhibition statement that contains all the information listed above within the introduction of this review and more. An exhibition statement is very helpful when first arriving because it gives a general overview about the artists as a group instead of as individuals. The statement includes that the showing artists came in contact with each other at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in June of 2017- May of 2018. This exhibition is the first reunion of the artists’ work since May of 2018.
The amount of space between each piece feels almost uneasy, awkward, and unnecessary. Large empty white walls frame each piece of work. The tension created within the gallery is complimentary to the tension reflected in the social issues depicted in the artists’ artworks. Having the large amount of space causes a magnetic pull form the artworks. The border of space from artwork to artwork causes a longer lingering time to analyze the artworks subject matter and meaning in depth.
Pinks, yellows, blues, and reds are popping off the white walls everywhere. A piece lacking this pop of color is M. Paige Ward’s. How Firm a Foundation I is a beautiful cast of concrete that appears like a pillow complementing a well-constructed sculptural piece of found pine wood. The Pillow like object is so believable it looks as if applying pressure from a hand would cause the concrete object to contour the shape of the hand. The Sculptural wood pine piece is modern in design, consisting of a flat half circle piece of pine is surrounded by identical (in size) half inch pine braces that cover the circumference of the half circle. The pine braces are about a centimeter apart and held in the half circle with copper plated nails. The cast concrete pillow is formed to look like the weight of the pine is pressing down on the concrete and leaving an indentation, one like the indentation caused when lying down on a pillow at night. This work is placed on a white pedestal that has a label which includes the name of the artist, title, and the medium. Ward is inspired by faith, longing for permanent security and comfort. She chooses her materials to best express these emotions such as concrete do to its permanent structure. She cast the concrete in a pillow shape to symbolize the comfort she is longing for. She is the wood sculpture secured by the concrete pillow.
Hanging stunningly on the right side wall of the gallery is Tether by Elyse-Krista Mische. She uses mediums she relates to growing up as a child such as papier-Mache, acrylic, graphite, etc. Tether is two separate panels. Each panel has a papier-Mache frame around the sides and is painted in white acrylic. The panels are side to side, but spaced apart. The two panels are tethered together with a light blue carefully cut scalloped piece of paper. Both panels have a painted pink acrylic chair facing back to back. On the left panel there is a gold foil circle which is symbolic of the sun. The right panel has a black crescent moon shape. Mische expresses the movement of time but tethering night and day together. She wants to cope with the anxiety of death and understand that she is mortal and must enjoy each day instead of fearing what is to come, because each morning is tethered to each night and the day will come to an end.
Under the Weight of Model Minority Tears/Truck Nuts is an eye catching
Framed archival pigment print
piece from across the gallery by Xia Zhang. She wants to expose the misrepresentations of Chinese culture caused by white culture. The artwork has about a 6” space of white background in the middle of the piece with two identical images on either side. The image is an unidentifiable woman due to her face being cropped out of the image. However you can identify her race. She is a Chinese woman. The women is dressed in a shawl of tear drops/truck nuts. Truck nuts are a Vehicular vanity accessory resembling a dangling scrotum. She is covered from her shoulders to her knees in truck nuts that are weighing her down. This imagery reflects the title. The woman is a minority and she is weighted down with American toxicity. The truck nuts are a symbol of toxic white culture that has created an obstacle for immigrant women of color. Zhang’s composition is similar to a scale. The minority model can only weigh or live up to the standard of another minority model. This is why the image is repeated on both sides of the horizontal plane of this artwork.
The exhibition is successful in what it is trying to achieve. There is diversity among the show with the different artists and the different social issues. The tension in the air is beneficial to the exhibition, but the awkwardness can leave some with “mixed” feelings.
Maria Davis is a Bachelor of Art Education Student at Valdosta State University. With a love for education Maria plans to graduate in may of 2020 and become an art teacher in a local area.