About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2000)
ART REVIEW b v JENMFER SCHILTZ THE ART SHOW OF ALL MOTHERS Shrines, skulls, fruit of the womb, St, Bridget on tho rjross, Mother Nature on a Catherine wheel, African goddess and chief-cook-and- bottle-washer—in the days of the Million-Mom March and the Jonbenet Ramsey media circus, it's interesting to note that artists still fre quently ding to the archetypes and primitive ideals of Motherhood, "The Mother Show" offers a few exceptions in degrees of self-knowledge, post-mod gnrl-ish interpretation, hip maternal honesty and private pathos. There's plenty of work by men here, and the majority concerns itself with views of the womb. Gene Clampitt's gorgeously formal and humorous cubist goddess portraits are rich in color and texture, with private parts that stand out in red like the spot on the map that says "You Are Here." Chris Hall's "I Give You the World" is mai den/m Dther/crone at her most unabashed, while "Embryo" by Don Carson is a coolly envi ronmental fantasy of returning to the source. "It's a Baby!" by Leon Herman is hilarious, with 1 Fox z Your Fnunciiy Neighborhood Tavern in Nor mai town Proudly Presents • Pool Tables * Courtyard Deck KARAOKE at FOXZ Every Wednesday , Starting at 9:30 pm TRIVIA at FOXZ Mondays at 8:00 pm Win Great Prizes! Open from 2-2, Mon-Sat (706) 546-8209 1294 1 'j Prince Avenue HAVE YOU SEEN ME? You Won’t At imP®RT PI A GN@ST1CS www.importd.com !§£ Import Specialist of Downtown Athens Concerned Maintenance and Repair of Fine Swedish, German and Japanese Autos 945 College Ave. 543.7982 t Amanda Jane Crouse This all-inclusive invitational presents a diverse array of approaches. From the poetic "I Am Blind" by Alicia Cab an-Wheeler to Mary Porter's "What Do You Do All Day?" we see women juggling domesticity and childcare with the commitment to self-expression, plus the demons and desires that a woman retains despite her ascent to life-giver. We're reminded by works like Deonna Mann's untitled shrine and "Self-Portrait as My Mother in 1979" by Mira Gerard of the day we come to terms with the feet that our par ents were/are human beings. Those human imperfections—incon sistency, denial, fear— leave a strange taste in place of trust and dependency. Some lose their illusion of parental perfection sooner than others, Mann takes on this unholy schism with a story of addiction and abandonment mounted between two quite different, but beautiful femi nine portraits. Once cur parents lose their infal libility, we can't help but turn the mirror upon ourselves and see that we will in seme sense become our parents regardless. "I am a domestic failure," says Mann, as Mira-subsumed-by-Mother looks on. But, hey, welcome to the Millennium! Mary Porter's "Happy Meal" takes on richer meaning in this context, and her Day-Glo fast food offering smacks the horary lips of den Pcppen’s smiling, ringer-mapping, rave-dancing, Generation Y "funkin Hollow Matrilkteal Hoe-Down" ladies. Sure these gals are vegans on weekdays, but a Candy-coated palette like Fop pen's suggests the inescapable New World Order chemistry. Our lead qml is forever 17, nurtured by the joy and <4 mothers and grandmothers, trading phrtrsy female stereotyping for a redefinition cf mfetijeneratioral relations. its rueful frankness {a suckling armadillo beneath maxed-out prophylactics), and "Ella's Birth" by Michael Guereon is a touching tribute to a father's adoration-minus the afterbirth. Dennis Harper's pruned kudzu yoni is gently ren dered, and tones of respect are consistent throughout. Amanda Jane Crouse has best captured a cer tain post-childbirth set of enlightenments and resignations known only to those who have stepped through that doorway of expe rience. Her mixed- media sculptural fig ures—a slender entreating mother crouched to the height of a shy, resistant child who hesitates nearby—are more expressive than anatomically correct. Their weathered proportions give way to posture and narrative, and the plump child who watches from several feet away eyes a mother wearily entreating but graceful. "The Mother Show" includes: Mary Porter, Deanna Mann, Jen Poppen, Beth Sale, Michael Guerzon, Chris Hall, Peter Loose, Alicia Caban- Wheeler, Kathleen Ragan. Dennis Harper, Beth Thompson, Don Carson, Mike Berry, Carolyn Berk, Gene Clampitt, Amanda Jane Crouse, Pat Ragan, VyvyarvHughes, Heartier Balthazar, Autumn Strickland, Mira Gerard, Leon Herman, Erin McIntosh, Stacy Johnson and Charlotte Small. © WHO: Sww* WHEK. H» Uwtsy GdBtry &d fcvfettro 6nssAk 795-01QJ hcw'much;;«ei Jen Poppen 'WatSum. ft tAthlnAmt tattoo . assemblage ■; collage installation^ J 906.246.0881 and netjlnds§ht.com mm nu ■■ flppfflll wsm MAY 31, 2000 FLAGPOLE B
