Newspaper Page Text
Page 8
Flagpole Magazine
April 8,1992
Men Who Make
MAKE is an art exhibit by Charles Ratliff, Curtis Whaley,
and Michael Lacho'wski. The show will take place in the
ground floor space of the city parking deck on College Ave,
April 9 through April 12. The exhibit will consist of sculp
tures, paintings, and photographs and is open to the public.
One piece by each artist will be given away as door-prizes
at the opening on Thursday night, April 9.
1 he artists decided a year ago to produce an exhibit
together and began making new wl rk for this shov/. Charles
Ratliff nad made 20 sculptures out of wood, some free-
standing and some hanging. Curtis Whaley made 7 oil
paintings for the show and Michael Lachowski made color
photographs, 8 of which will be exhibited. They all have
short hair.
Sitting in the back section of Rocky's Pizza, I spoke with
Charles Ratliff, Curtis Whaley, and Michael Lachowski. All
three of them look you directly in the eye when they speak
to you.
Whaley: We all felt similarly interested in each other’s
work. I was originally Charlie's idea for us to all have a show
together. Because we were familiar with one another's
work, we all felt that there would be a certain level of variety
and quality in the show.
Lachowski: We wanted to choose a place that was
accessible and convenient to the public (free parking). The
show is also going to draw attention to the city parking deck
We are using such a large space that a type of collaboration
is almost necessary in order to justify it. It creates a much
stronger show. We also wanted to choose a place that you
could go to no matter how old you are.
The exhibit will exist in a condensed amount of time I
think this factor adds to the entire experience of the show.
Openings like this one are necessary because they get
people to make an effort to be there. Openings give a level
of entertainment to the exhibit. Sometimes work that is very
good just doesn’t get seen because there is no motivation
to go and see it. It doesn’t matter how long a show is up
because it just gets put off until it is missed I am guilty of
this, too. Openings are a way of getting people to go.
Opening receptions give you an opportunity to broaden
your perspective on certain pieces by allowing you to watch
the reactions of the other people there. There will be times
when I simply walk quickly through the show, grab some
food, and I am ready to go. Then, I will notice someone who
is completely enthralled in one of the pieces, and it makes
me go back and really study the work to see what 1 have
missed.
We felt that publicity was important. We are putting extra
effort into getting the word out so that at least everyone will
know about. If they choose to stay home, that’s OK, but we
don't want some not to go just because they didn’t know it
was going on.
What is MAKE? It’s stuff we made. Making an effort to
have a lot of people know about it motivates you to put
togetner a new body of work that you feel strongly about.
Ratliff: It is also a step in a direction that is new for all of us.
Lachowski: Publicity gives a sort of announcement and
resolution to your work. It has to do with the idea of having
gone on record of making something. It's like a legal
contract.
Whaley: I’m not the type of person who works well with a
deadline. Part of it is that, if I don’t live up to the deadline it
is very depressing for me. I mean, I'm going to do the work
anyway. Luckily, we kept pushing back the deadline. It
worked out.
Lachowski: We are all throwing things up that we’re not
too sure about.
Whaley: It’s like when you get a new car, say a Honda
Accord, and you start noticing all of the Honda Accords in
town. I notice the wonj "make" all of the time now. I listen to
conversations and hear, “Oh, ... make, ... make.. .make
.make ... make. Ha, ha, ha,... Oh, .. .make."
The Thursday night opening will begin at 9 p.m.. The
show v/ill also be open for viewing from 10 a.m. — 10 p.m.
on April 1C and 11, and from noon until 5 p.m. on April 12.
Most of the works as well as t-shirts are available for
purchase.
Yvonne Gzenkowicz
Art Encounters
Foolishness?My life was beginning to spoil, to stink
of success and death. Now I put the sun and the mocn
in the same bag. And what's left is night. Not other
people‘s night—my own! This horse sinks into my night
and rises out of it: like a deep sea diver. He brings back
sentences. Can 'tyou tell that the least of his sentences
is more wonderful than any poem? I'd give my complete
works for just one of those little phrases in which I hear
myself — tho way you hear the ocean in a seashell.
Foolishness? What do you expect my darling? I’m dis
covering a world. I'm changing my skin. I'm tracking the
unknown. — Orpheus speaking in “Orphe6," by Jean
Cocteau.
Sometimes there are more clues for self-awakening
when a work of art repels the grain out of which we are
made. I felt a discomfort when passing through the front
hall of the Visual Arts Building. The paintings by Kevin
Grass at first gave a castor oil taste and that is when I sat
down to take some notes. These snapshots of a middle-
aged couple have been full blown into paint, skillfully
rendered. Kitsch was the first word that came to mind
but this was just a response to the objects surrounding
the couple. These objects set the stage for these people
staring into the camera—not at all intimidated or shy to
be exposed. These are captured moments from the
lives of the disenchanted. The source for my stomach
churning was the exposed vision of mundane living and
how much I fear the settled routines of the lives I see
around me. The titles are revealing in themselves:
Gravity, Reserve, Distain. Humility, Passion. “Passion’
is peculiar in it’s morbidness with a view of this couple
in the kitchen-dining area, the woman’s staunch figure
in the back, cleaning or washing or who knows what —
she could be doing sculptures, but I doubt it. The Man
looks away with a grim unsettled expression, his back to
the woman and the separateness of the two figures is a
light-year at least: passion.
Lamar Wood has his paintings in the Visual Arts
Gailery through April 11. The show gave me the expe
rience of seeing different parts of the same person,
schizophrenic in the positive sense. The painting with
the grapes prevalent in frame and innards is an abstract
painting with a strong motion, eyes weave through web
shapes and bulbous forms. Right next to this painting is
a serene portrait and then an ominous wide landscape
with three twister storms in the sky; next is another bright
abstract — an eclectic painter indeed. There is one
painting with a grand fish swimming in a fish-bowl
space enveloped by land; fish scales decorate the
frame—the undulating snake form repeating like a lisp.
The fish painting faces the portrait of Anna Belle Lamar,
her tired and bemused expression gazing into the
fishbowl, is an alarming blend of styles. Her skirt is like
an animal, alive, and she’s nuzzled her hands into it. I
enjoy most of the paintings and decorated frames,
especially the oversized gold frame which surrounds
Ms. Anna Belle Lamar. The show is a lesson in being
experimental in style but some of the work isn't as
developed as it could be.
The enjoyment never ends in this building; the small
gailery at the end of the long hall holds a show by Susan
Miller. This work is very engaging simply because it
expands past the normalcy of wall hangings and enters
the central space forming barricades of rope, walls of
rope with paper pulp and dyes encrusted. These large
hanging walls of rope form exciting confrontations. I like
it when the space in a room is architecturally changed
by the art forming new hallways arid doors. The work on
the walls is less motivating since the colors and patterns
are more pronounced and graphic, but the central
hanging pieces are muted and mysterious; the ropes
look like fishing nets dredged up after years of algal
submersion, the remnants of the sea ingrained in salted
ropes.
Bettina Hubby
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