'Reveal: from the Accordance Series' by Joe Chesla
Students needing a break from classes might want to dip into a quick, refreshing exposure to fine art with Gallery 210′s newest art exhibit “Exposure 13.”
The campus’ Gallery 210 opens its new season with “Exposure 13.” There is nothing unlucky about this number thirteen. This excellent three-artist exhibit is part of an annual series that presents works from St. Louis area artists. The gallery is located north of the Millennium Student Center, near the North Campus Metrolink station.
This excellent exhibit of three strong art works is just the right size of a quick but fulfilling art break visit. All three artists are influenced by post-modernist, conceptual and minimalist art trends of the ’60s to ’80s but each offer distinctly different takes that complement each other well.
Entering the gallery space, the first piece likely to grab attention is on the right, Joe Chesla’s large, sweeping “Reveal: from the Accordance Series.” A large piece of Plexiglas, with lower corners gently curled up and covered in an orderly series of two thousand small light-refracting water-filled bags. The work invites both a look at its big picture and minute examination of its details. Spotlights above striking the clear Plexiglas and water-filled bags create pleasing patterns of light on the floor and walls. The look is striking but also soothing and relaxing. The installation invites one to step in and be embraced by the work, giving one the sense of being wrapped in giant bubble wrap. Chesla’s work is site-specific but retains its repeating elements. The work is minimalist but, unlike many works of the earlier era, it is not self-referential. Instead, the art aims to focus on the viewer, drawing one into the present moment.
On the wall across from this work is Martin Brief’s “Altitude chamber^alveolocondylean,” a series of white sheets of paper covered with simple, boxy drawings in black ink. Students who have taken a molecular biology lab may see a resemblance to DNA sequencing gels. As a visual experience, the installation is enigmatic, vaguely robotic and hints at symbolism, inviting one to look close to try to discern the meaning of the shapes. In fact, they are a series of hand-drawn outlines of the text on pages of a Webster’s dictionary, part of Brief’s Dictionary Series. The act of only outlining the text both defines its space and removes definitions, in delightfully absurdist manner. The work reflects the importance of words and their flexibility at the same time.
Strolling into the second room of the gallery, one sees a simple table covered in what appears to be an arrangement of empty, up-turned turtle shells. The objects are actually hand-made ceramic “begging bowls” of the type made and used by beggars in the artist’s native Pakistan. Asma Kazmi’s work is titled “Kashkol (Begging Bowls).” A closer look reveals that while the bowls are arranged in orderly fashion, they are irregularly-shaped and varied in size, shape and color, ranging from pale earth tones to browns and blacks, often with a mottled appearance. About the size of a hand, all but one are arranged singularly on the table. The bowls are all hand-made by the artist, in a meditative and performance art aspect of the work. The work invites reflection on the lives of the poor by presenting their utilitarian objects as art, but also refers to Sufism, as begging is part of the spiritual activity of Sufi mystics.
“Exposure 13” is both enjoyable visually and pleasingly thought provoking, in varied ways. It runs through December 4.
