: SELECTED PRESS / ESSAYS

THE DETROITER
F*CK YOU/ Commentary, Criticism
By Nick Sousanis
06/21/07

Arts blogger extraordinaire Ann Gordon crosses over from her role of ever-present gallery-goer (and artist) to set up her own shop in the former Pr1mary Space. It’s a bold move as she opens herself up to feedback from the other side of the blogosphere, and of course, critics – which is where we come in.

Gordon has taken quite an active curatorial role – not stopping at selecting the work, but creating pieces for the show and altering some of the works themselves. The show title implies an active stance against critical feedback, yet that stance feels almost contradicted by a curatorial statement that attempts to over-explain everything. There are plenty of clever bits in the writing, but ultimately we’re given too much in terms of how to think, to feel, to react to the work, an attempt to shape the viewer’s own response. The statement espouses six loosely defined theoretical themes that the show sets out to explore in terms of its overall premise. It’s ends up being a lot to keep up with. (To make it just a bit more complicated, despite rereading the statement numerous times, I keep coming up with seven listed themes.)

The centerpiece of the show is an installation of sketches and notes created by Los Angeles artist Mary Addison Hackett. One large poster board done in the sort of style of lettering you might find on a poster for someone running for high school student council (in the 80s at least), reads “Today was fucked but tomorrow tomorrow is another day.” The first tomorrow is uncolored, off-centered, and crossed out, as if the artist made a mistake, or changed her mind and then changed it back again. Its intentional appearance of non-intentionality works and hooks our attention. Smaller messages read as if reminders, affirmations written by the artist and placed around her studio – perhaps they are. Some samples, “Give yourself rewards for self-control,” “I will become what I think,” and “Paint Happy Words Pictures.” There’s irony and sarcasm aplenty and it’s hard to know if you should laugh or reflect with a long, knowing pause. By itself, this is the sort of piece that works within the intended framework of the exhibition. Gordon has compounded upon that by intentionally hanging the work incorrectly, as she says, “It’s the viewer saying, ‘F*ck you!’ to the artist’s intended objective.” The fact is, there are works that would be really f*cked with if hung out of sorts, but not this one – it works in any configuration, mixed around, parts upside down. It’s a collection of random thoughts and images that each viewer will take in at his or her own path and speed, were it not for the installation blueprint hanging nearby, no one would be the wiser.

A single painting by Toronto artist Andre Ethier, features a Rambo-esque duck telling the viewer to “duck off”. The show essay states that this is “the artist’s pro-active, and quite probably both silly and ultimately futile, preemptive strike against critical response.” It had me at “silly” and “futile.” Rambo mixed with Duck should be funny, but it’s not. There’s just not enough meat on the bones of this one in terms of painting or concept to warrant a critical response.

Chicago painter Nevin Tomlinson offers greater conceptual thought, addressing the “box” as multiple metaphors in a series of paintings. It’s a start – the parallel compositions tie in nicely to the idea of being “in the box,” in all the potential meanings of that phrase, but ultimately the works need to probe deeper to really connect.

New Yorker Jose Ruiz offers up a label for a non-existent painting, which reads, “Your Opportunity To Feel Something Lies Here.” It’s quite clever and Gordon gives it perfectly appropriate space with an entire blank, white wall to itself. It’s the sort of thing that by its very nature is forgettable, but it elicits the right response at the moment of viewing it, and fits in well with the overall curatorial scheme.

There’s a single photo in the show, of artist Chuck Close taken without his knowledge at an art fair and put up on (one assumes) the curator’s blog. Here the statement is quite insightful and speaks to the issues of privacy and anonymity raised in an age of camera phones and blogging. This piece offers the seeds for a whole exhibition delving into blogging and web-culture in general that could be really promising.

Local artist Dylan Spaysky offers up a Zoetrope spinning on the gallery’s ceiling fan (hence making it seasonal art.) It’s a janky, awkward looking construction, jerking about in the gallery, which is just right. Animated writing inside reads “Tug Ahoy,” in reference to the show’s title. It’s a clever and light moment that offers a reminder of the fun had in putting this on and the jest of both the gallery and show titles.

The final piece, a video, is a strong curatorial element. Staged and filmed “anonymously,” it features artists and directors of their respective galleries Dick Goody and Jef Bourgeau sitting at a small table. Goody is reading (from “Art in America” were told), in the manner of a learned academic, while the impish Bourgeau is tying him up in a length of rope. There are plenty of meanings to be read into this – as in link between artist and critic, artist and audience, and from knowing the identity of these men and their role in the community, but it stands on its own (even without the volume on) as this odd couple of playful prankster and exacerbated orator. They dynamic between the two propels imagined narrative along and one could envision this as but the first of several.

Overall the show is ambitious, in terms of where the artists are from and types of work shown. Perhaps too much so, as narrowing the focus could strengthen what’s already there. There are plenty of interesting ideas at hand, but too many of them all at once. There’s never a chance for them to build upon and resonate with one another. That said, in an era where blogs rule the day and 1,050 word art essays are coveted, but seldom read, maybe this fleeting bit of attention to each idea is just about right.