Symbols, The Door Opens: Maidu Museum Group Exhibition and Artists' Talk

Every third Saturday, the Maidu Museum and Historic Site in Roseville, CA has a Night Out at the Museum event.  This month's Third Saturday event was the reception for Symbols, The Door Opens, a group exhibition that is showing from March 19 - June 10, 2016.  The exhibition features the recent work of artists Alan Wallace, Alicia Siu, and Stan Padilla.  The reception for the show was from 6:30 - 8:30pm with an accompanying artists' talk at 7:00pm.   

The art of Alan Wallace (Nisenan/Washoe tribe) focused on symbols related to his culture and heritage.  One of Wallace's artworks, hedem poo (acrylic on canvas, 2015), was featured on the show flyer, which includes Nisenan words (in addition to the title) interspersed among blue abstract imagery and a violet background.  Interestingly, there is also a diagram of a chemical structure in the lower-right portion of this painting.  Many of Wallace's paintings in this show carried this composition and aesthetic; "scientific" imagery mingles with various Nisenan words.  A dialog forms between the scientific formal elements (even the bright colors suggest a sort of artificiality) and the Nisenan words and abstract shapes to the left.  The result of this dialog is ambiguous, but Wallace might be making a complementary connection between the worlds of "modern science" (the chemical structure and formulas) and his native culture (Nisenan words and abstract shapes).  Specifically, the shapes of both the abstract imagery to the left and the chemical structure to the right are similar in terms of shape, line quality, and color.  Likewise, the chemical formulas (such as OH and CH3) also resemble and blend in with the Nisenan words.  The similarity between the native and scientific words and imagery evokes a sense that both worlds are addressing the same subject but in their own language (for example, it could be that modern science, for all of its tangibility and "authority," is simply re-hashing what is already understood in Nisenan culture, such as the natural elements and other occurrences relating to nature).

Another one of Wallace's artworks, jamandi (acrylic on board, 2015), gives more insight on the artist's intent.   In the upper-left are what look to be images of test tubes.  Below these test tubes is an image of the "golden spiral," which is a geometric spiral whose shape is based upon the "golden ratio."  The golden spiral is significant because many forms in nature are based upon the shape in terms of appearance and mathematics.  Jamandi includes English words as well.  There are two phrases within the painting that resemble scientific notes that a researcher might jot down in a notebook, "application of mathematical models to the physical world" and "the mathematics of infinity."  Like hedem poo, jamandi seems to be an exploration of how science relates to the natural world and how mathematics and science are languages that try to understand nature and reality.  Overall, Wallace's work seems to be a semiotic exploration of both native and scientific languages.

Stan Padilla is another artist in Symbols.  Padilla is a mixed media artist with Yaqui and Mexican heritage.  Like Wallace, Padilla draws upon his culture as a foundation for his work.  The artists' talk was fairly brief (Alicia Siu spoke the most, but both Wallace and Padilla shared more on their artwork after the talk), but each artist had something to say about his or her work.  Padilla emphasized how he uses symbols as a connection to oral tradition and symbolic thinking.  One of his goals is to use symbols as a "universal language" that is understood by all.  All of his pieces within the show are united by their use of mixed media, such as "conventional" acrylic paint and mineral pigments.  One of his artworks, Ancient Languages, has a painterly quality with its color, texture, and that it features several miniature canvases that are placed on a larger one like a quilt.  The earth tones of the paint evoke a sense of solemn reverence, in addition to the appearance of the ancient symbols used.  After the artists' talk, Padilla elaborated that several ancient languages were used for this artwork, such as ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Chinese (pre-dynastic), and Greek.  The appearances of all of these symbols, especially if standing from afar, look similar; Padilla not only draws connections between all of these ancient languages and their accompanying cultures but also between ancient and contemporary cultures.

Alicia Siu (Nawat/Pipil/Mayan) is the third artist in Symbols.  Her largest artwork, Ge Portal (acrylic on wood, 2016), interweaves symbols from her culture, personal experiences, and dreams.  The painting features a baby girl (inspired by her daughter and a Hopi baby she saw) illuminated with orange and a starry blue background of outer space to the right of her.  "Ge" symbols (spirals) painted in off-white and magenta form a V-shape, the point of which descends and touches the "soft spot" of the infant, which is a point on a baby's forehead that moves with its heartbeat.  During the artists' talk, Siu elaborated upon the information given in the accompanying didactic panel.  She said Ge is the Zuyuan Mayan word for "Milky Way," which is the "place of origin" in Mayan culture.  The spirals are also significant in that they represent the conch shell and are found in many ancient Mayan and Nahuan artworks.  The conch shell, in turn, is also the symbol for "zero" for the emptiness within.  Zero is important in Mayan culture because unlike Western conceptions of "zero," zero is not emptiness or an absence but a beginning.

Siu further elaborated on the symbols within Ge Portal by recounting how she dreamed of a razorback turtle with the "three hearthstones" embedded in its back.  The stones represent the three  Mayan worlds of the sky, earth, and underworld (which are also represented by her three main blocks of color, the orange, blue, and colors within the V-shaped Ge symbols).  The turtle was another inspiration for the starry sky imagery in the painting because the three stones in its back relate to Orion's Belt.  Siu said that the story and dream of the turtle are especially meaningful for her because she saw an ancient Mayan mural at Bonampak (ancient Mayan site in Chiapas) depicting the turtle with the three hearthstones after the dream.  Much of Ge Portal is focused on the concept of "origin" as Mayan culture centers upon a cyclical conception of time, renewal, and re-creation.  Siu also discussed how, for ancient Mayans, astronomy, astrology, science, math, religion, and philosophy were the one and the same.  Lastly, Siu explained why she chose the V-shaped Ge symbols to coalesce on the baby's "soft spot."  She felt that the "soft spot" and the heartbeat it revealed related back to the "Ge Portal," the place of origin.  Siu's painting is intimate, personal, and complex with its multi-layered connections between the artist, her culture, and her exploration of symbols and representation.

 Flyer for Symbols, The Door Opens that features Alan Wallace's painting titled hedem poo (acrylic on canvas, 2015).

 

Alan Wallace, jamandi, acrylic on board, 2015. 

 

 The Golden Spiral.  A representation of the Spiral appeared in Wallace's painting, jamandi (acrylic on board, 2015). 

(Apologies for the lack of images.  Photography is generally not allowed within the Maidu Museum, but Alan Wallace gave permission for his artwork to be reproduced.)

Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads

Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is an exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum that is open from January 24 - May 1, 2016.  Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist and political activist.  The artwork featured in this exhibition includes bronze sculptures of the twelve animals from the Chinese zodiac, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and boar.  The heads of each of the animals rise out of bronze posts and are arranged in an arc.  The layout of the exhibition is simple yet the colossal size and arrangement of the sculptures make a strong visual statement.  Each sculpture is about ten feet tall and weighs 1,600 pounds.  Up close, the heads are even more impressive as they tower over the viewer.  I thought it was interesting to see the level of detail that went into the creation of these monumental sculptures; some parts of the animal heads are smooth, while others have a wide range of incised markings.
  
Central to Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is Ai's political statement.  All of the zodiac heads are oversize replicas of the twelve zodiac heads that once adorned a fountain-clock in the gardens of Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty.  In 1860, the heads were taken from the retreat by the invading British and French troops during the Opium Wars.  Today, several of the heads have shown up in auction houses and five of the original twelve have not been located.  Protesters frequently show up at these protests, demanding that the heads be repatriated to China.

Ai's Circle of Animals not only prompts a dialog about art ownership but also addresses concepts of authorship and what is "original" and what is a "copy."  Although Ai based the sculptures off of the "original" sculptures from Yuanming Yuan, which were designed by European Jesuits when they served in the Qing imperial court in the eighteenth century, they differ in size and composition (the heads from Yuanming Yuan were smaller and attached to seated bodies so the overall appearance of each sculpture was more figurative).  Another difference between Ai's sculptures and the originals is that even though both are now politicized, Ai clearly had a political concept of repatriation in mind when creating his versions, while the originals were only politicized later after they were pillaged. 

In Circle of Animals, authorship is related not only to precedents (the European Jesuits) but also the number of people who contributed to the creative process.  Although Ai is credited with creating the sculptures in Circle of Animals, the actual fabrication process of the heads involved numerous artists and individuals.  However, this approach to creating art has been common throughout history, where one artist might direct other artists in a "workshop" setting (the zodiac heads at Yuanming Yuan were most likely created by an entire team as well). Overall, the bronze sculptures in Circle of Animals are a technical marvel and prompt important discussions about repatriation, ownership, originality, and authorship.

An illustration of the original zodiac sculptures at Yuanming Yuan that flank either side of the fountain's center.

 

 Ai Weiwei, twelve bronze sculptures in Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.  The sculptures were made in 2010.

Another view of the bronze sculptures.

  

A closer view of the horse sculpture.

A video featuring Ai and Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.  

A Brief Tour of the Art Hotel

The Art Hotel in Sacramento was a "hotel" featuring the work of many artists who created their artwork in abandoned Jade Apartments on 7th and L St.  The Art Hotel was open from February 5 - 13, 2016, although there was a special VIP opening on Thursday, February 4th.  Much like how the tenants of an apartment complex or guests in a hotel may arrange their belongings in their rooms to express their own identity, style, or who they are, all of the artists had their own style, which showed through their unique interpretation of the space they chose.  However, unlike an everyday hotel, the artists could deck out the various rooms of the building to their heart's content, whether in the form of graffiti, massive installations, or literal holes in the walls and ceilings.  If there is a "catch," it is that the Art Hotel is temporary and will soon be demolished this spring.  All of the artists seemed to embrace the ephemeral aspect of the project though, and in a way, it made the Art Hotel that much more special.

The Art Hotel was open each day from around 11am - 11pm (although the hours varied on different days during its week-long run; on the weekend, the hours were extended due to the huge turnout).  Speaking of turnout, it was great to see so many people interested in the Sacramento art scene.  However, lots of people means long lines, but this was a unique experience in itself.  When I was there, the average wait time seemed to be an hour and a half, but the volunteers at the Art Hotel had a nifty ticket set-up where visitors simply took their ticket for a specific time (whether for the next immediate showing or a later time that day) and could return later if the wait was long.  Around fifty people could be let in at a time, and each "tour group" was given thirty minutes to wander and explore the Art Hotel (not enough time to take in five floors of artistry!).  For those who did not get to see this great event in Sacramento, there is a virtual tour of the Art Hotel that will be available until the building's demolition that can be visited here: www.virtualarthotel.com

For this post, I will cover at least a few of the artists and their spaces, but this brief overview does not do the building justice as practically every wall, floor, and ceiling was covered in art.  Floor One of the Art Hotel featured the entryway of the building, with a few artworks, but most of the artwork began on Floor Two.  One of the first artworks that made a strong impression on me was Riding the Wall, which included graffiti, "traditional" paintings hung on the wall, and performance art as skateboarders rode up and down a make-shift plywood half-pipe, leaving behind paint trails on the floor that add another dimension to this piece.  Riding the Wall celebrates skater culture, and the accompanying statement elaborated on how the artists wanted to bring attention to the normally overlooked aspects of skateboarding, such as the unique skid and scuff marks left by skateboarders on sidewalk, rails, etc. in everyday life.

 

 Graffiti in the installation, Riding the Wall.  Visitors can walk on the half-pipe so long as no skateboarders are there.

 

Another view of Riding the Wall.  I thought the ceiling fan offered an interesting counterpoint to the "skate park" setting.

Riding the Wall, like many of the artworks in the Art Hotel, challenges conventions of art viewing, such as seeing paintings and other two-dimensional works in "traditional" museums.  Riding the Wall could be classified as "installation," but there were so many other types of artworks within this space, and it was really its own experience as the viewer could actually step into the space of Riding the Wall.  Another installation that addressed conventions in art viewing was the one with the wooden man peering into a cavernous wall on Floor Three in Room 302, the living room.  The man literally emerges out of the hardwood floor and gazes into a wall completely opened and transformed into wooden, spray-painted abstract polygons and graceful swirls.  The narrative of this piece, if there is one, is interesting in that the man is actually facing a mirror, which is placed at the end of the "cavern."  This installation was created by sculptor Shaun Burner and multi-media artist Franceska Gamez.  The installation not only displaces the room but also the "traditional" art viewing experience, as the man fills the space of the room, and viewers can step and walk all around the man and check out the various nooks and crannies in the room if they wish.  Burner and Gamez's installation prompts discussion on the possibilities of viewing art in a physical space.

Shaun Burner and Franceska Gamez, Floor Three, Room 302, Living Room.

More of Gamez's work can be seen in a black and white kitchen.  A painting of a mysterious woman with applied directly on a corner wall.  The woman and several of her other works feature her iconic parallelograms, trapezoids, and abstract swirls, like those seen in the living room installation with the wooden man.  Her artworks in this room are relatively small in scale, but this invites viewers to take a closer look.  Some are figurative (one features a golden tree, others portray more mysterious female faces) while others are more abstract, but they are all united by a similar aesthetic and Gamez's mastery of using her materials, such as cardboard, wood, and spray paint.  Seeing Gamez's work in both the living room with Burner's wooden man and the kitchen at the Art Hotel was a real treat.  I happened to be in a drawing course with Gamez at Sac State a while back, where I first saw one of her pieces with spray paint and cardboard, and it was really neat to see how her work has changed and evolved since then.

A view of the kitchen featuring Gamez's work, such as this painting.

More work by Gamez on the back wall.

Next to the kitchen with Gamez's artwork is one last installation I will cover.  The installation featured a two-room set-up by Kaz Huette, Darlene Engellenner, and Diane Rukhala Bell.  The layout created an interesting dialog that was not apparent at first.  Visitors first walk up to an unassuming bathroom door with a conspicuous peep hole that says "Don't Look."  If visitors dare partake in the act of voyeurism, Huette, Engellenner, and Bell comically address viewers' expectations by revealing a benign scene with two ducks floating in water-filled bathtub with two-dimensional shower water drops on the wall.  A clear counterpoint to the bathroom is a room with a black curtain covering its entrance, with an "Enter" sign over the door frame, which I will refer to as the "Bird Room."  An essential part of the Bird Room is the ominous, looping soundtrack of cawing crows, screeches of an eagle, and the ticking of a clock.  Even from outside of the room, visitors can hear the soundtrack.  If viewers are curious (or courageous) enough, they walk past the curtain into a completely dark room except for some UV lights.  In this room, the viewer's role of voyeur suddenly shifts to the position of being watched.  The center of the room showcases a flock of birds, possibly made of paper, that are suspended from the ceiling and are either flying around, rising out of, or cascading into a fiery cage.  A mysterious white shape covers part of the wall on the right (if the viewer is facing the birds with his or her back to the door).  If viewers missed it upon entering the room, they will find that a menacing eye (instead of a fairly harmless peep hole) is indeed "watching" them.  The word, "Look," with an arrow pointing into the pupil of the eye is painted by the eye.  Within the pupil are faint clock representations, which only adds to the horror and fear element of this room with their suggestion of passing time and mortality.

Huette, Engellenner, and Bell's installation made a real impression on me because it has so much to offer in terms of discussing acts of voyeurism, aversion, and watching.  For example, all of the words used for the Bird Room suggested a friendly invitation, such as the "Enter" sign and the "Look" painted by the eye.  However, practically everything else with the Bird Room was intimidating, such as the visuals of the ghostly birds flying around the bin, the mysterious white object on the wall, the eye, the use of black for both the curtain and interior walls, and the soundtrack.  On the other hand, the "Bird Bathroom" with the shower spray and ducks was almost the exact opposite; the words of "Don't Look" and the closed door suggested that viewers'  eyes were not welcome, yet the white palette of the door and interior of the bathroom were relatively inviting.  Both rooms employ reverse psychology and even speak to the common occurrence of people either looking at things when they are told not to or not looking when they are told they should.  Huette, Engellenner, and Bell use a multitude of stylistic and behavioral conventions to center upon a dialogue about what circumstances creates aversion while others attract unwanted gazes.  As suggested by their use of the explicit and "spoken" (the visual words) and the implicit and "unspoken" (the messages sent by the use of black and white and overall ambiance of each room), the artists address the complicated nature of human communication and psychology.

 Does the viewer dare to?

 The viewer is rewarded with a view of blue shower water drops and two painted black ducks made out of some sort of material, possibly wood.

Another portion of the collaborative installation by Kaz Huette, Darlene Engellenner, and Diane Rukhala Bell.  Paper (?) birds fly above a fiery, illuminated bin in a dark space lit by UV lights.