Exploring Your Own Mixed Bag.

By A’Niecia DeFour

The recent exhibit at the Dedo Maranville Art Gallery at Valdosta State University was intriguing and full of life. The exhibition is titled “Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft” which is a perfect description for the show itself. The show consisted of mixed media contemporary crafts by five different artists from across the US: Max Adrian, Emily Culver, Elyse-Krista Mische, M. Paige Ward, and Xia Zhang. Each piece in the exhibit dealt with different aspects of personal identity such as sexuality, religion, and culture.

The set-up of the exhibit appeared to be fairly spaced out, as if they did not have enough pieces featured or large enough pieces to fill the space allotted. This could also be partly to blame on the arrangement as well. Each piece demanded to be observed by the viewer so much that each created a space of their own. Each piece takes the viewer into an individual space because of the amount of energy that radiates from the works.

Max Adrian, The Buddy Community, Faux Fur, pleather, leather, spandex, misc. materials, chains, hardware — Max Adrian, *The Buddy Community*, Faux Fur, pleather, leather, spandex, misc. materials, chains, hardware

The work of Max Adrian was a crowd favorite in the exhibit. His work features pleather, fur, chains, and spandex, which gives his work a sexual energy. Adrian’s sculptural piece entitled, “The Buddy Community,” can be interpreted as a representation of the sexual community behind BDSM. This soft sculptural collection features 12 plush, animal-like figurines. Each figure is clothed in furs and leathers and black and pink are continuously used to add unity among each form. Flashes of electric blue, red, and neon yellow on other forms add life to this piece. Some forms have animal ears and tails while others are missing these features. Each form does have two small holes in its head, where a nose would usually be placed. Coming out of some of these nostril-like holes are chains hooked to a ring which resembles a septum piercing. Adrian created these forms without faces, giving the viewer the opportunity to project themselves onto these forms and explore their own sexual identity.

Max Adrian, Scrap Alphabet, Vinyl, pleather, leather, thread, faux fur, athletic mesh, chains, hardware — Max Adrian, *Scrap Alphabet*, Vinyl, pleather, leather, thread, faux fur, athletic mesh, chains, hardware

Another piece that stood out was Adrian’s, “Scrap Alphabet,” wall piece. This piece has scraps of pleather, thread, faux fur, and athletic mesh pressed between clear, square vinyl. There are twelve sets of ten vinyl squares linked together by a single ring on each end in vertical and even rows. Adrian created 120 individual compositions out of these scraps of fabric and unified them using a limited color palette of red, pink, black, white and yellow. Adrian placed the yellow scraps of fabric through the piece, allowing the viewer’s eyes to move throughout the artwork. Each individual composition has a different personality and mood. One of the compositions features yellow scraps radiating out of a black square center, resembling a cheery sunflower or sun. Another square has black and pink string tangled inside of it, evoking chaos. Overall, this piece forces the viewer to form their own meanings and emotions based on the scrap compositions floating within each square.

Xia Zhang, Thoroughness of your Seediness, Video — Xia Zhang, *Thoroughness of your Seediness*, Video

Xia Zhang was another artist featured in this exhibit. Her video installation, titled “Thoroughness of your Seediness,” features a visually satisfying bird’s eye view of the artist cutting up a pomegranate and stitching it back together with black thread. There are red juices bleeding from this fruit and seeds pop out of it as she slices it into thin layers. This video seems to be a symbol of heartbreak and healing. Zhang is shown threading the needle and tying the knot in preparation to put her heart, the pomegranate, back together. This video is long enough for some viewers to grow bored or impatient. This can be also seen as a symbol of an individual taking their time to heal their heart regardless of feeling rushed by others. Healing has no time limit.

The feature that made this exhibit the most enjoyable was the playful exploration of mediums. Throughout each piece, there were various mediums seen in crafts such as fabrics and stitching and each artist used them to create piece that explore emotions and self-identity. This exhibit relates both to the artist and the viewer giving the opportunity to explore their own sense of identity and truly gives definition to the exhibit title “Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft.”

A’Niecia De Four is an Art Education major at Valdosta State University. She is originally from Dallas, Texas but has spent most of her life living in Georgia. She enjoys creates work based around womanism and the objectification of the female form.

“Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Art” Exhibition Review

https://www.facebook.com/pg/VSUGALLERY/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157051056197766 — VSU Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, *Exhibition “Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft”*, 25 February 2019, opening night

Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Art is an exhibition consisting of 5 major artists that aim to display various perspectives within contemporary craft communities. The artists are Max Adrian (Columbus, Ohio), Emily Culver (Richmond Virginia), Elyse-Krista Mische (Appleton, Wisconsin), M. Paige Ward (Gatlinburg, Tennessee), and Xia Zhang (Tulsa, Oklahoma). The Valdosta State University Dedo Maranville Fine Arts gallery shows a text panel at the entrance of the gallery. It highlights the artists aim to examine and challenge the social issues that are difficult to discuss. For example, sexuality, queerness, faith, race, and death are some of the themes they explore. Though different in many ways, they unite through these heartfelt themes.[1] Each artist shared experience as the Artists-in-Residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee from June 2017 to May 2018. Since their separation, Mixed Bag now serves as the first reunion of their works in almost a year.

Continue reading “Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Art” Exhibition Review

More Than Meets the Eye

By Arin Guyette

Valdosta State University’s Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery has recently brought in a new show: Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft. This exhibition is composed of five artists (Max Adrian, Emily Culver, Elyse-Krista Mische, M. Paide Ward, and Xia Zhang) who bring together different perspectives of contemporary art from across the country. Artists today often explore the concepts of sexuality, gender, religion, race, and death and this exhibition brings those challenges to the public of Valdosta, Georgia.

After walking in through the front, you’ll find the gallery to your left behind two glass doors. The overall space is small, and if you’re not paying attention, you may just bump into Mische’s piece The Great Divide. A white, pyramid-like shape with human silhouettes across from one another. One laying down and the other rising upwards, likely calling back to religion- specifically Christianity (as there is a cross at the top of the piece).

Zhang’s work Thoroughness in Your Seediness is in a dark corner with the identification card moved to a completely different spot. It’s a bit disorienting. Thoroughness in Your Seediness is a video of someone cutting up a pomegranate and sewing the pieces back together. The crunch of the knife against the fruit is a little unsettling and the lack of any outside noise makes it border on ASMR (or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). Though most ASMR videos are meant to relax the viewer, certain sounds may trigger an unpleasant chill or irritation of the ears. I’m not sure what to make of this work, however, I feel a deeper meaning present by the choice of medium. I found myself asking a friend what they made of it and they said, “Maybe it’s about control and reconstruction”. The fact this person chooses to cut up the fruit but sews it back together in their own way can symbolize the willful destruction of something to bring it back more personalized than before. In relation to Zhang’s statements about race and genders in their art, I can’t say that this piece’s message is clear.

One of the 8 frames from Zhang's Madame X. The focus is on a Chinese woman who says "I feel something in heart." — Xia Zhang, “Madame X”, February 25, 2019, Porcelain, cotton, gold thread, wood, wire, glaze

Contrasting with Thoroughness in Your Seediness, along the first wall to the left is Zhang’s Madame X. The set of 8 frames is evenly spaced and well lit. The small subtitles for each image insist that you get up close and move with the piece. Zhang’s focus here is on race and gender, which becomes evident through the text. The fourth image (from left to right) shows a man grabbing a woman by her arm and saying, “You come to my room, then there won’t be any trouble.” In five, six, and seven we notice the Chinese women using bad English, which contrasts with all the men’s lines and enforces the foreign dialect. Created with porcelain, cotton, gold thread, wood, wire, and glaze, each image appears as a sleek, yellow box that juts out from the wall. Each box is somewhat crooked with dents and bends as if it was crafted quickly or half-hearted. However, the glaze on each frame shows Zhang’s solidified dedication to their shape. The subtitles are emphasized with the gold thread while the images appear printed on standard copy paper.

Ward's "How Firm a Foundation IV". It is a curved wood casing sitting on top of a concrete pillow. — M. Paige Ward, “How Firm a Foundation IV”, Cast concrete, cedar, found wood, copper plated nails

Most of the work off the wall belongs to Ward and their How Firm a Foundation series. Created from cast concrete, cedar, found wood, and copper nails, Ward plays with the word “firm” by casting the pillows with concrete. Nestled above each of the concrete casts are curved wood panels, lined with thin strips of wood and held together by the copper nails. Ward creates the illusion of the wood’s weight through the realistic curvature and bends in her cast pillows. With each piece, the size of the pillow, height, and type of the wood change, but everything else remains the same. The concrete pillows represent Ward’s longing for stability and the curved wood may very well represent the artist or the audience of the world she wishes to stabilize.

Within the space, there are several pedestals positioned around the room and a large tiled artwork on the floor in the far back (Culver’s What She Saw When She Walked In). This setup is a common approach to so the overall feel is lacking and a little creepy. Overall, this show is meant to evoke thought and spur conversation. It is some of the newest works out there so that speaks to the appeal. However, the current setup of the pieces with the odd placement and lackluster lighting choices somewhat detracts from that power.

Bio: Arin is a junior Bachelor of Arts major who is studying animation and graphics design at Valdosta State University. They are scheduled to graduate in 2020 and wish to work with television, movies, and gaming.

Mixed Bag and Mixed Feelings: My Take on Contemporary Art

The exhibition Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Art at Valdosta State University was very surprising. After walking around the gallery a few times I analyzed what I saw, and at first what seemed like confusion later developed into disappointment. Although I viewed some pieces that piqued my interest, I was not entirely pleased with the show. Continue reading Mixed Bag and Mixed Feelings: My Take on Contemporary Art

Not A “Bag” Experience

By: Karley Hamm

Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft contains works from Max Adrian (Columbus, Ohio), Emily Culver (Richmond, Virginia), Elyse-Krista Mishce (Appleton, Wisconsin), M. Paige Ward (Gatlinburg, Tennessee), and Xia Zhang (Tulsa, Oklahoma). Their exhibition and works are held in the Dedo Maranville Gallery at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. It consists of multiple works that follow up on social issues, and is explored through many different mediums.

A sculpture of concrete and found pinewood by M. Paige Ward — M. Paige Ward, How firm a Foundation I, cast concrete, found pine, copper plated nails

papier-mache paniel by Elyse-Krista Masche — Elyse-Krista Mische, Tether, Papier-mache, panel, canvas, embroidery, tinfoil, acrylic,ink, graphite

Photograph of Exhibition “Mixed Bag: An assortment of Contemporary Craft” opening night by VSU Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery — VSU Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery, Exhibition “Mixed Bag: An assortment of Contemporary Craft”,opening night

As soon as you walk into the gallery, you will find it to be pretty bare for the size of the room. Dedo Maranville Gallery is not infamous for its huge space, but it is no mere rinky-dinky sort of gallery, either. The works displayed in this exhibition are fairly small and do not fill much of the room. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to the viewer. The colors of all of the different works share a similar contrast and palette. They have delicate touches of pastels in their works which gives off a sense of light and airy bliss on the white walls. Continue reading Not A “Bag” Experience

Mixed bag. Mixed Feelings

Mixed bag. Mixed Feelings.

By: Daniel Carter

“Mixed bag”, the current exhibition at the Dedo Maranville Gallery at VSU, is an interesting concept of having five contemporary artists showcase their pieces to the masses of the school as well as those outside of the university. The five artists in the showcase -Max Adrian, Xia Zhang, Emily Carver, Elyse-Krista Mische, and M. Paige Ward- bring their own unique styles to the table in this current exhibition. The Mixed Bag Exhibition is an interesting idea of contemporary artist coming together and providing an insight to their own ideals and morals that leaves someone questioning why each artist only had three pieces each. Continue reading Mixed bag. Mixed Feelings

Philosophical Art Show: Mixed Bag

By: Andrew Pack

The “Mixed Bag” group exhibition at the Dedo Maranville Gallery, Valdosta State University, is a show of contemporary artworks over social-religious thoughts.. In this exhibition, there are five artist and their names are: Max Adrian, Emily Culver, Elyse-Krista Mische, M. Paige Ward, and Xia Zhang. The “Mixed Bag” is about social issues such as “sexuality, queerness, faith, race, and death”. The artworks are a form of vulnerability in the process of analyzing the social issues. The exhibition has much to offer in exploring who one is, and how these artworks affect people today in our confusing society.

Within the gallery is an open space with sculptures distributed among the open floor on pillars, or display tables of sorts. The rest of the art hangs on the walls as other kinds of display pieces, such as paintings, pictures or video. The artworks are grouped by the artist who produced the works. This grouping helps keep the atmosphere airy and open. The gallery has an open feel, as if to allow conversation to flow and be open, like the show and the issues the artists attempt to convey to the viewers. The open space also makes it easy to wander about and take time to look at the pieces without seeing others immediately. It allows the viewer to focus and study the pieces.

Within each section of the grouping, there are artist statements among the works that explain the artists’ viewpoints. The viewpoints are the subject matter that the artist is trying to convey to the viewers. Adrian tries to look into the LGBT community and looks to understand the struggles in understanding one’s self. Ward explores the ideas of faith and what that means to humans in daily life. Mische explores life and death, and how that affects people. The other artists look into topics as well such fears and misplacement, but these have a strong representation throughout the gallery, and cover the most ground in bringing the works together without isolating one from the other.

First, Max Adrian and his artwork titled, “The Buddy Community”, is a fun play on the LGBT community. The work displays anthropomorphic type cats. The cat-like pieces sit in groups facing each other in a form of conversation. The works are made from vinyl, cloth, hair, suede, and some metal chains. The pieces take the sensual type materials, to be a form of community. Each group has a clique that they belong to, kind of like society, and how there are so many types of ways of identifying. Going off of identity, is the manner of how people view themselves as male or female regardless of body parts, or other factors. But in all reality, it is honest in how we are divided. The piece conveys this very well. The colors also help, as there is this form of a rainbow effect. Not all the colors are used, but the artwork does use the idea of the rainbow flag that represents the LGBT community. This also helps build the idea in a way, by how the LGBT community uses a rainbow flag. The community has a feeling of isolation, even though there is community. But the groups are chained to each other, as if they are shut out from the others, while resting in the same boat.

“The Buddy Community”: Max Adrian, Vinyl, Cloth, Hair, Suede, Metal

Ward explores faith in her works, as most of her pieces relate to faith. She fabricates representational works, of a house on a firm foundation, which is called “How Firm A Foundation 1 and V”. These are two separate works, but are relative to the subject matter basically being the same. In the pieces the houses are made of wood with pins that keep the wood kept together. These representational houses are then mounted on top of a piece of cast concrete. The concrete is a firm foundation that holds the house up. The concrete is important, by relating to the Bible story, about where one should build their house. The firm foundation determines whether the house will sink. It is a matter of wisdom and how one cannot build there house on sand, or it will sink. But a house built on concrete will not be going anywhere anytime soon. It fits the context of faith and the Biblical story in how important the house is to be built on the firm grounds to avoid sinking. It is similar to faith and how one should have a firm foundation in their beliefs.

”How Firm a Foundation 2”: Paige Ward, Concrete, Wood, Pins

The last artist is Mishe who delves into the ideas of life and death. The best representation is “Tether”, which is a great representation of life and death. The piece balances a strong representation of life and death amidst the turmoil of life. The usage of the sun and the moon shows the exchange of life and death. The sun represents life and when the sun sets, that represents death. The chairs work compositionally, as they balance the asymmetric piece. The asymmetry being how the sun and moon are in different sections and provide a different weight, but still has a balance in the piece. The moon being under the chair provides an idea of being under, like ten feet under, representing death. The other having the sun rising shows life, and it is above its chair. This lets it seem like one is rising or growing to get through the day.

“Tether”: Elyse-Krista Mische, Paint (Acrylic), Paper Wood

Overall, the gallery is successful in conveying what the artist were trying to explain to the viewers. Some of the works are representational. But this allows the viewer to reach for an interpretation, amidst the social issues that are tackled. The pieces are very successful in the purpose that they were trying to represent in the gallery. The artworks are representational, but are right on the money in the representations of the subjects in society in how people interact with their faith and identity.

Andrew Pack is a Art Education Major in the Fine Arts Department of Valdosta State University. He was born in Savannah, Georgia and lives in Macon, Georgia. His artwork revolves around faith and struggle. Human strife is a major part of life, and having dealt with depression; he uses it as the fuel for his artwork. He draws from personal experiences such as sports that he played such as football and track, along with the enjoyment of the outdoors. The last inspiration is from faith.

An Assortment of Contemporary Craft

Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft displays five artists using interesting craft techniques to explore difficult subject ranging from universal human experiences to those of specific identity groups . The artwork in the gallery is spread across the wall and on simple white stands around the floor; there is plenty of space between pieces but the space still feels resolved and filled. Each of the five artists have more than one artwork to show though they are not always placed next to—or even near—each other; the exhibition is truly “mixed”. You may come across an artist’s statement and biographical information across the gallery from some of their work. These statements give background information on both the artists and the meanings behind their art; they are best read after you have experienced and considered the work on your own and have come to your own conclusions.

Continue reading An Assortment of Contemporary Craft

Mixed Bags

The “Mixed Bag” is a variety of contemporary art created by five different artist. The exhibition was set up in the Dedo Maranville Fine Arts Gallery at Valdosta State University. The exhibition deal with a variety of social issues that are sometimes too hard to discuss. So each artist created artworks dealing with social and political topics that they feel strong about. The topics vary from sexuality, queerness, faith, race and death.

Wall-hanging of Elyse-Krista Mische's, "Sustain". — Elyse-Krista Mische
papier-mâché, panel, canvas, embroidery, tin foil, gold leaf, thread, acrylic

When I first walked into the gallery, I felt a sense of emptiness compared to previous shows. The walls were not over crowded with works. In fact it was maybe two or three works of art on each wall, the back wall in the gallery even had one piece hanging. Just based on the scene set up, I concluded in my mind that this show may be a very simple show, but yet the artworks convey strong messages that we often deal with throughout life.

Ideally, I made connections that most of the work had that post modernism feel. Looking at the pieces I felt as though they were made from your everyday household objects. One piece in particular that sat in the back of the gallery on the floor caught my intention. It was a block constructed with what I believed to be bath tiles. It had what I assumed were bath plugs, until I further looked and noticed the chains attached to the stoppers were actually necklaces. The piece was entitled “What I See”. It had a very monochromatic color scheme. To me the piece implied a story. What you see is what you see, nothing more, nothing less if that makes sense.

Rectangular panel that is placed on the floor. It's covered in pink tiles and has tub stoppers on top — “What She Saw When She Walked In”: Emily Culver, copper, enamel, caulk, nickel, silver, wood, paint

Majority of the pieces had a different variety of media. The pieces by artist Xia Zhang interested me the most. He used different mediums in his work such as porcelain, cotton, gold thread, wood, wire and glaze. When first looking at his pieces before really engaging them, I thought that I was looking at a series of different paintings. What I realized was that they were scenes from movies. There was a total of eight different pieces, each of them dealing with social subjects dealt with throughout the world. One of the pieces said “To Americans, all Chinese look alike for goodness’ sake”. I immediately interpreted that this particular piece of work focused on racism. Emphasizing how Americans view other that are of a different race. Zhang’s pieces varied from the subject of racism, sexuality, and feminism.

Another piece in particular that caught my attention was the setup of dolls, by Max Adrian entitled “The Buddy Community”. My initial reaction was why he dressed these dolls up in these different furs, and loud colors. The dolls were all connected at the neck with rope metal chains. I wondered what the purpose was. My initial take was that the artist was showing how much of an influence friends can have on one another. Signifying that we often let our friends influence us on a lot of decisions. Almost like having a chain wrapped around one another pulling them and making them do whatever we want, whether the decision is right or wrong. Continue reading Mixed Bags

Mixed Bag reunites at VSU

by Joseph Mays

As I entered the exhibit, titled “Mixed Bag: An Assortment of Contemporary Craft,” I quickly noticed the vast amount of open area. Each artwork had enough space to allow the viewer to walk around and look at it from multiple angles. Each artist whose work was displayed had spent time with each other during their residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee from June 2017 to May 2018. In fact, this bringing together of their work was like a reunion for them, seeing as though they all moved to separate states upon the end of their residency. I’m sure being in each other’s presence had some sort of influence on the art they made at the time, and here, we see a unifying theme of usually sensitive topics and themes. Continue reading Mixed Bag reunites at VSU