rope, tar, resin. currently in processThursday, November 30, 2006
Unhinging the Distant exhibition at CSAW
On view through December 28
by appointment Kathryn Kelley kkelley@houston.rr.com
Commerce Street Artists Warehouse, 2315 Commerce Street, Houston, TX 77002
by appointment Kathryn Kelley kkelley@houston.rr.com
Commerce Street Artists Warehouse, 2315 Commerce Street, Houston, TX 77002
The show, Unhinging the Distant, includes recent MFA graduates and soon to graduate emerging artists, Doug Cason, Woody Golden, Leslie Magdaleno and Emily Sloan. Curated by Kathryn Kelley.
Dredged archives of near history become the source material for these artists. We are drawn close by strangely intimate narratives that emerge from the altered objects as they are unhinged from the past. Your inclination will be to touch and know. Ponder as you will, but no touching please.
Doug Cason’s study will be recreated. Why? Because when I enter his space I lose my sense of time. I sit in a comfortable old chair draped with a rich purple throw surrounded by old books. Am I in a study? As my eyes focus on the objects around me, I realize that what was old has been made new. A beautiful sense of the now and the antiquated are interwoven.
Upon the surface of the books are paintings in miniature, narratives not of the internal stories which are marked out line by line, word by word, but ones influenced by the embossed text on the spine and Doug’s research and now moments. Enticingly small, delicate and detailed are the book paintings. Juxtaposed to the shelved texts in the room and hanging in the entry corridor are old portrait photographs of unknown individuals. As with the books, altered narratives are created through scratching out and painting new.
The space is private and rich yet I am unsettled by the realization of the hidden messages in the arrangement of the space and the sense of interruption as Doug’s altered ego surfaces in one of his Zepeda paintings. I am reminded that I am in the present where nothing is sacred. I am now.
Woody Golden unlike Doug does not cross out line by line word by word but instead carefully glues each page of the text together shutting of the source narrative. Woody then proceeds to carve into the tomes essentially digging out its’ primary content. This he carves into various shapes and then places back into the gutted text. My first inclination when approaching Woody’s work is to retrieve the carved object, pull it close and caress it. I beg permission. The artifact is surprisingly cool under my touch. Woody is obtuse about the recasting of its narrative. But as the viewer, I cannot help but to find meaning.
Leslie Magdaleno, working both in fiber and collage, casts her gaze upon the feminine. Spanning forward from the era of her mother Leslie explores the female form through traditional techniques of knitting and sewing to create two and three dimensional female forms. These forms are both delicate and full.
Emily Sloan, recently recognized for the collaborative installation Burning House on HWY 59 near Lufkin, works sculpturally back and forth between the representational and the abstract. In neither case does the narrative stand still. Emily’s work either is affixed to or references the antiquated and is highly tactile in nature.
Defense mechanisms of self enclosure
In thinking about critic and curator Okwui Enwezor's lecture at MFAH. Intimacy. Fear. Proximity. Disturbing nearness. Loss of shallow distance. Contamination. Enclosure. Enclusion. Exclusion. Exception. Empire of Secrets. Endless waiting. Out of place. Out of time. Out of tune. Profound unsettling. Mode of eradication. Intolerance. Non-recognition. Residue. Degeneration of public space. Artificial enclosure. "...The 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule" (walter benjamin). 
8' x 5' x 18"
tar, twigs, string, and board
November 2006
tar, twigs, string, and board
November 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
ArtCrawl Houston
Saturday, November 18, 2-9pm
www.artcrawlhouston.com
2315 Commerce Street Houston, TX 77002.
My studio (J) is in Commerce Street Artists Warehouse CSAW (yellow building with 2 big round saw blades on the front). I am in studio J in the back of the building with metal door. Free metro shuttles available They run the circuit of art studios/warehouses in the downtown area. Once you find a parking spot you should be good for your visit.
There is an exhibition in our main gallery and our studios will be open for you to visit. Hope you can come out for a fun day.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
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