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MADE IN ATHENS
The DOC employees visual art exhibit At th( new
DOC buiidtny corner of Meigs and Finley streets
through Yarc l i 5
Last week
I ruminate i m an
it f
town gatler
y in A
siieville
that show:ase* Atheiv,
utists w
K se ta!
lei its are sel
dorr. ;
f ever.
glimpsed <u !
otue. No:
Ashevii!
e may !
le an ur;lik«
»!y tourist i**s
tinaticn — ,u
: i ha'/irv
t lived n i*
•eat 0
d my life m
Colon
ral
•VilhamsbuD;
I thank ;
leavens f
i that
- but alone
1 -with
its bur
georunn pop,;
iation i»
lias v» ban
k tble n
atunal rep
as one
artsy
Vine Rea lie
ai.Ked "ool ; ace *
. ive.
Scratchino
I beyond
trie >uifac
■ : Atl
kern well k
n* am
music
scene, one hr
ids that t
he arts, h
ko tile 1
•jihl' •• th »'
’ mte-
ted tire
Starship Enter pnse inter Lie*-* i raj rdlv
— something that many U.S. urban
renewers are purposely exploiting as
case studies back up the 70: S'dio
cliche that well-nurtured air breed
city niceties like lower crime rates
livelier downtowns ind that incalcu
lably valuable sense ot community
identity sorely la kmu in suburban
sprawl zones. Given all thi* it strikes
me as downright wacky that Athens
private and public sector has by arid
large, tailed to successfully tip into
the goldmine ot a resource that is our
sizable contingent ot professional
visual aitists.
Wackier still — but fortuitously so
— a smail but significant subset ct
our recognized artists mount then
made in Athens innovations on the
uninsured walls ot our smoky cafe*,
and han salon' Take Mark Steinmetz’s challenging new Sandy
Creek Nature enter photos senes intricate intertwirurigs r f twigs
and skies reflected and re-reflected in ponds and puddles. They
turn that annoyingly pat genre the nature picture, so completely
inside out that just attempting o comprehend these images
induces a heightened state of consciousness. As they hung here
in whiffing distance of fresh spinach pie. another Sternmetz series
is up at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. He
also has work in the collection of the MOMA. Need I say more?
Lest you write off Steinmetz as some flukey exception to the
lule, go gawk at the D.O.C. employees exhibit, which was orga
nized in a temporarily vacant space as a tip of the hat to the
artistic efforts of the company's hard workrn’ day-laborers. It's a
thir. premise that one would expect to yield a painfully uneven
event (as was the case m the Asheville figurative show). Yet all of
these creators approach their art with such an urgent and edgy
verve that i would be untazed it i encountered any of it — with a
few minor exceptions — in some downtown New York gallery.
Tike, foi example P.O.C.'s co chief, photogiapher Call Martin's
"Systems of Organization." which is the thud and latest chapter
ct his ongoing v.oik devoted to our ittoiphing Athena. Each image
is an understated study of empty bins in the currently vacant
Fanners Hardware Building. He’s skirted sentimentality by
anchoring each image to a formidable foimal ngoi, quietly memo
riahzmg the fading eia of hand letteied Magic Maikeied labels.
;ke some latter-day Walker Evans. Then there s Jeff Owens
earnestly sardi me Hans Christian Anderson's Cartoon n Head
Shop sensibility that's got all the < uburhia send up power ot a
al Aits stai. but with that longed tor angst transplant
In Owens new four foot lung triptych, 'Hardwood, a pink and
ochre aura bathes a goodly eyed tiger
kitten catching bubbles blcwn to it by
insipid Minnies while on the right a
skanky old skullheaded dude wanks on
an ele trie guitai in gothic red and
black. In the middle, a blonde bopp*g
offers a skeptical horsey flower,
while behind them lies a patch of blue
with tin penciled wcid W A T F.-R over
it. suggesting that the image was
painted by some obedient toddlei in
an alternate woild of really tweaked
paint by numbers images.
Owens' strapped to a table
Frankenstein as lead singer is way too
smirk eliciting to even start on.
Elsewhere Angie Grass and Tim Root's
"A Book Unbound" is a hand painted
paean to futility on tin. limning 20
provocative panels down the back
hallway It is not to be missed. Nick
Harringtons white marble sculptures a;e more than just impres
srvely naturalistic. With their hint of Louise Bourgeois, both
"Embellishment." a studiously sculpted roll ot fabric balanced atop
a ical fabric roll, and "Of Hands a meticulous tendering of
wrinkly bottomed lemale feet, unfussily engage conceptual issues.
D.O.C.'s other co-chief, Carol John, has a Man Kay floating lips
convention hovering over a Bauhaus-istic lime green color held
that has truly cheeky charm. Carol Bernard's any, laminated
photos cross Kodak happy snapshots with an anlessness that has
great potential. If you missed Dennis Harper's "Robots in the
Italian Landscape" series, you have another shot at catching this
hysterical conjoining of 50s sci h sentiment with Da Vrncr esque
Cortona countryside — he's even turned them into a limited edi
tion book, also on display. Of note are Low and Land's ability to
rescue the birdhouse from the land of cute. Jeremy Kirk's interac
tive experiments and John Lloyd's crude cardboard jackknives. C
Jeff Owens U-.» me. t: m the $er»<s: H tf //
’re L'ts.Xiirq i :,\i. •. mued-media on board. 15 * 20 in.
ART PATROL
by MELISSA LINK
ANNOUNCEMENTS
• The Black Affairs Council
students of color
, V • 4>u W ' •i'. T ' ' r
> ma-gr; 1 . ;* <>j,.* » * •
• re • tii Asian Art
Students Showcase <\ , W
lamar Dodd School of
Art
-
mail pretty' artus;i»;:. ; . •
•
Hwversity 'ji-oi, , i .-e g ap|,i ,
lions iron* artists a ’ trig • •.
ft* Tate Student Center Gallery
Appl
•'<12 *j'3% tor details
• The Lowery Gallery ,7v .
space opens Ma" ti 21 Cali 7Y»-fJlfi2
EVENTS
• The Printmaking Student
Association golds its annual print
sale fr,n r * in- : 5 n •• V# • i
1 a " • Lamar Dodd School of Art
• Cotton Patch Quitters
quilt show and
sale <‘ Oconee County Civic
Center 7
7:irv v* • 4 • *f < • -ft
SHOWS AROUND TOWN
• ACC Library 7
•/ ' »f f; » A(/f ; , , t)\ "<•
Lyndon House Arts Center s
Imagination Station
•mo . W-.h 7
:, Hildegarue Timberlake
am; <„•» Uv* ■ < rv? ’ i
• Athens Brewing Company
i(7 v.Ai pa • ?i' i, Beth Sale
• Blue Sky Coffee ; : • ;
Wendy Gimmski ai : Terry Rowlett
hang through March •
• Clayton Street Gaiiery "Youth
Art Month ' is a Hud show V.ahjfr.g
Aork by Mi.dw * ‘ron Clarke Central
High Sciioot 'tanging through Match
•* •< ♦;{,tior and a.*..h Js weinony
; -i *. >n March < f
• Book Peddlers Am spm * t /
- i,m Athens Academy
firvt qraders
• Five Star Day Cafe more v a
k , Patliy Torno ' a- ; i g " • ,
*/ i fl
• Georgia Museum of Art Before
1948 Masterpieces of American
Painting from Georgia
Collections ‘ < ; ' With These
Hands if. : ' ‘ da.< ma 5*
* i j* 7 a* * 1 Winslow
Homer and the Elusive African-
American Boy ' *: tough Man.t ’-i
Heritage of the Brush ' a display
Chinese scrubs and tan paintings,
” r< nqf* March 28
• The Grit Paml rigs by Hannah
Jones, and "Hang on lu Your Ego
Oylan
Neuwirth riamj through March 20
• Heart's Eye Gallery now in Five
Pf "ts'j Work by Mary Porter. Jim
Stipemaas, Gwen Nagel. Susan
Nees, Ella Salt, Brooks Burgess.
Anna Eidsvik, and Nancy Carter
• Hole in the Wall
• r> ‘ y Bethany Marchman ’ ;
•? r >u-jti <iii t-Man.i'
• Loblolly Frame Shop & Gallery
assorted work by h-rai a f, r.ts
• Loef Gallery
by (?■ a' artists
• Marrakech Express W •* t.
Marrakech employees ’ m ;s
(hrm.ijnVi* •>
• Strand w • • : ‘ Jos by
Amy Hairston a .! i. itv t.v C.
Keen Zero j 'i • jti **an n
• Tate Student Center Gallery T tt* ;
12th Annual Student Photography
Show hangs through March Hi
• Thompson Gallery "Artvircidn •
d* iwifig installation by New fork artist
Richard Dennis * angs ti.rough
March 12
• The Winery m * w rk by Garland
Sutton
• Wired & Fired 'inner Verses.'
ardh by Pilar Pages paintings by
Amber Wigget and pottery by Travis
Cown
1
■
WEDNESDAY. MARCH 3
The Gerbils
GREAT LAKES
UMPIRE
doors open at iOpm four dollars
THURSDAY. MARCH 4 /
doors open at 9pm
five dollars
FRIDAY. MARCH 5
doors open at 10pm
five dollars
SATURDAY. MARCH G
doors open at 10pm
five dollars
MONDAY. MARCH 8
Mudhoney
THE TITANICS
(Members of Man or Astroman?
and Rock’A^eens) ,
doors open at 10pm five dollars
TUESDAY-WEDNESOAY, MARCH 9*10
Closed for Spring Break
Seven Foot Politic 3/12
The Music Tapes .3/13
CiboMatto 3/15
. ‘Cracker 3/20
‘Morphine 3/22
‘Salt&Pepa 3/23
( r ~?‘ * Tlx On Sale Now .
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MARCH 3, 1999 FLAGPOLE IS