"Post-hypnotic"
University Galleries, Illinois State University
(traveled to The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX; The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; The Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA; The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; SECCA, Winston-Salem, NC; The Tweed Museum, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN; Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL; Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 1999 - 2001)
Artists: Ross Bleckner, Steve di
Benedetto, Judy Ledgerwood, Stratton Cherouny, Mark Dagley,
Philip Taaffe, Sarah Morris, Karin Davie, Michelle Grabner,
Peter Halley, Jim Isermann, Yayoi Kusama, Tom Martinelli,
Tom Moody, Aaron Parazette, Bruce Pearson, Peter Schuyff,
Walter Robinson, Michael Scott, Jason Martin, James Siena,
John Armleder, Susie Rosmarin, Tad Griffin, Fred Tomaselli,
David Szafranski, Yek, and David Clarkson
Excerpt from artzine review by Darlene Kryza, Chicago-based writer and artist:
[Around the time of] Pop art, Jean Baudrillard began his intellectual rant about simulacra and hyper-reality, not anticipating how quickly his hypothetical world would arrive. His sociological theories were in direct response to 1950s capitalist America: the replacement of the individual for a shiny new conformist self was odious and frightening. He spoke in depth about the blending of symbols, due to their disproportionate repetition, into meaningless simulacra. Who could have guessed how accurately his predictions would come to fruition? On a formal level, the work in "post-hypnotic" addresses the future of painting: the viewers briskly react to the mirages before them, momentarily entranced, before hastily advancing to the next piece. Feigning disillusionment, the [artists] pull out their most extravagant trickery, hoping to entice viewers long enough to take a closer look, pondering beyond mere patterns in favor of substance.
With a vengeance, Steve Di Benedetto paints a giant yellow Scan, 1989, slapping the viewer with an intricate, precise representation of the moiré pattern created when attempting to digitally scan work that has previously been reproduced. An emotional response occurs as viewers try to get their minds around just how far removed the painting before them is from its original source. Tom Moody, in Jump, 1997, presents us with his enormous xeroxed paper quilt, commenting on the loss of craftsmanship. He speaks of an era that gauges respect with 24-hour accessibility and the ability to talk fast and smooth. Quite a difference from fifty years ago when respectability existed in the hands of those who could create. The piece also remarks on the lack of patience prevalent in present-day America. Painstakingly constructed, all connections are carefully considered, every shred of commonplace material seamlessly bound.
In the same vein, in Untitled, 1986, Peter Schuyff
makes a beautiful yet sad spectacle of the fast-paced nature
of contemporary existence, painting a large green and yellow
gingham picnic blanket for us. The work feels as if belongs in
a historical museum--an artifact of a prior civilization's
leisure customs. Bruce Pearson's Wanna Be Happy Be Happy,
1995, reads as a child's botched science experiment. The vivid
crayola color and simple organic shapes, naively painted, make
the viewer long for the childhood freedom of finger painting.
There is such playfulness in his rendering that one cannot
help but walk away rejuvenated and reassured. Possibly
perceived as an aerial view of a newly constructed
subdivision, the cynic could view this piece as identical
roads leading to a perfectly manicured central garden of
suburban hell.
Excerpt from essay by curator Barry Blinderman, from the exhibition catalog:
[Moody] brings a slightly rumpled materiality to digital
media by drawing and printing illusionistically shaded globes
of various diameters in a simple 2-D paint program,
photocopying them onto colored office paper (the omnipresent
blue, canary, goldenrod and pink), cutting around them in the
shape of various irregular polygons, and taping them together
patchwork style. Fastened unstretched to the wall with
pushpins, these subversively appealing paper quilts flaunt
lowbrow craft and design, slyly demonstrating both the
presaging of the computer matrix in traditional weaving and
photoshop "cut-and-paste" technique in simple collage and
mosaic.
Photos: Installation views at University
Galleries, Normal, IL. Above: Tom Moody, Jump, 1997.
Below: Tom Moody, Mark Dagley, Peter Schuyff. (Photos by
Mark Dagley)
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