International Experiences Transform Ohio Artists I
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·-·----- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2002 I SECTION E Online Entertainment news www.cleveland.coin/entertalnment Televiswn E2 Online Lifestyle news Comics E9110,11 www.cleveland.com/llving Advice EIOE8 RTS SW 1•:tlQt,11:■•lEll�;I / .. ,.. International experiencestransform Ohio artists ...i.. DAN TRANBERG Special to ThePlain Dealer REVIEW .. ,.. , Spaces .. ,.. What: "Connections: Ohio ,.. It was a desire to paint under Artists Abroad." : When: 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday • the North African sun that led through Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Saturdays; and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. • the Swiss-born painter Paul Klee .. to travel to Tunisia in 1914. Through Oct. 25. Where: 2220 Superior Viaduct, Little did he know that it Cleveland. would change his work forever. Tickets: Free. Call 216-621-2314 Now, historians unanimouslyre or go to www.spacesgallery.org. fer to 1914 as a turning point in Klee's career - the year that color became central to his art. International travel often has Each artist is a former recipient such impact on artists. Thirteen of an Individual Arts Fellowship COURTESYOF SPACES GALLERY from Ohio set out to prove the point in "Connections: Ohio Art from the Ohio Arts Council, an ists Abroad," on view at Spaces award given to only 10 percent of applicants. After receiving a fel Ravenna artist Kathleen Browne, who hasa passionfor natural Gallery through Oct.25. historymuseums, photographedfellow artists during her 2000 Curated by Spaces director Su lowship, artists become eligible residency in the Czech Republic, then used the images to create a san Channing, the show is un for the council's International fabulousseries of insect forms."Case I/CaseII (butterflies/ commonly rich with exceptional Program,which beganSEE in 1988. beetles)" is currently on display as part of the Spaces show works, partly due to a long and "Connections: Ohio Artists Abroad." stringent selectionprocess. _ii '•1th ART I E6 , ., I { I ...� .. ..,-· f .... _, •• , •• , ••• �.-� ...... joined together into a single continent, which threatens America with its \ dagger-like teeth. Stephen Litchfield, \ meanwhile, makes useless furniture by cutting up plastic lawn chairs and riveting them back together in dysfunctional ways. Prague is a gorgeous city, and metalsmith Susan Ewing was so impressed by the many stars that decorated everything from churches to courthouses that she decided to hanm1er out her own stellar series. Perhaps reflecting the misuse of power that accompanied the nation's new economic and political freedoms, the stars have a dangerous beauty, as if to say that one must be careful not to lose dense tapestries on which she sews this work in a new context in the pages I everything to greed. fabric, beads, buttons and other objects. of"Dutch Journal;' a beautiful book that Large-scale installations by Claudia She's been working on her incredibly documents the artist's projects and the Esslinger and Aminah Robinson dense, 42-foot-long mixed-media piece efl:ect they had on him. couldn't be more clifl:erent.Esslinger is a since returning from a residency in Maybe she was no longer inspired by multimedia artist who works with Israel almost four years ago. A tapestry the political subjects like supe1fund sites video, fihn and sound. "Retopia" draws would have to be this big to encompass and internment camps that dominated parallels between the World War II the parameters of her theme, which is her recent work, or maybe it had bombing of Dresden and 9/11. nothing less than the spiritual history of something to do with the death of her Constructing a trampoline out of African Americans. In terms of both father. In any case, Masumi Hayashi's rawhide and metal, she implies a safety style and subject matter, her work residency in India coincided with a turn n!':!t for people jumping out the sometimes recalls the paintings and inward for subject matter. There is a windows of the World Trade Center. But sculptures of Reverend Albert "Wagner's strong sense of spiritual renewal in her projected onto the rawhide is an image work, but Robinson's is more ornate, if images of temples, burial grounds and of the cobblestone streets of Prague. you can imagine that. other sacred sites. Her familiar style of Jump, and you hit the bricks. In addition to established cosponsors reconstructing vast panoramas from Robinson is more hands-on, creating in Dresden, Prague and Israel, the dozens of adjacent photographs hasn't program allows artists to choose their changed, but people reappear in the own sites anywhere in the world. Mary photographs after a number of years, Jo Bole proposed to visit an arts center bringing new warmth to the work. in the Netherlands. Although better Ann Hamilton has shown work all known as a ceramist and installation over the world and represented the U.S. artist, she decided to make a series of in the 1999 Venice Biennale. Since artist's books, a medium that had long moving back to her home state of Ohio fascinated her. "Thankful Subjects" was recently, in order to teach, she has begun an amalgam of drawings and hand to exhibit more often with her local colored photographs of her obsessions: peers while maintaining ties with the insects, toilets, cemetery monuments, international art world. Like much of types of barbed wire and, not her work, the structure of her piece in coincidentally, her own art. this exhibition is serial. She shows a Malcolm Cochran made a number series of self-photographs taken in Italy, of large-scale installations while in in which she all but disappears behind a residence in the Netherlands, some of veil of tears. which he re-created when he returned Susan Channing has done a great to Ohio. Cleveland viewers may job of finding work that 1s remember his installation of dozens of thematically related, if sometimes in an hand-carved wooden shoes on the floor oblique way. If you want to know of the Center for Contemporary Art a what many of the best artists in the couple of years back. In the current state are up to these days, this is a good exhibition, you'll have the chance to see opportunity to find out. ■ 13 J,19 ":\; ,! ■ REVIEW BY BRANDON BRADY he world is not enough, but it comes close for the group of artists participating in T Connections: Ohio Artists Abroad. Creative minds from the Buckeye State took part in exchange programs overseas courtesy of the Ohio Arts Council. The resulting exhibit - curated by Susan Channing of Cleveland's SPACES exhibition venue and currently on dis play at the Weston Art Gallery- is a quick, exhilarating trip around the world that explores the international influences that these 13 artists have allowed to permeate their work. Most stunning in Connections is the 12-piece photographic essay by Ann Hamilton, "reflec tions." Chosen as representative to the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, Hamilton found a shim mering way t.o tap into her own soul. Initially, she created her installation, "myein," just out side Venice's American Pavilion, incorporating a steel grid of rippled glass panes. But as she discovered, the artist could truly become one with the artwork. By placing herself behind the panes, she became the subject of her piece. Various natural lighting effects tweaked the image for a magical composition of a woman living beneath water. Hues of greenish-blue mak� the dozen photo graphs, one every five minutes over the course of an hour, add to the mythical air of the piece. Snugly fit side-by-side, the complete result is total immersion into the artist's world. World image is a key proponent of the work of Todd Devriese. From a distance it's easy to dismiss his work. His pieces appear to be noth ing more than grandiosemaps, perhaps an ode to his travels and best-suited for a historical museum. But you must move in closer to truly appreciate what he's done, showing that there are two ways to look at art. Devriese's collage on paper motif has taken a Ann Hamilton's "reflections 12:40" offers a shimmering demonstration of how travelling navigator's prime tool, snipping the light tans, overseas can affect an artist's perspective. The work is part of Connections: Oh�o Artists pale pinks and sky blues and relaying them into Abroad at the Aronoff Center's Weston Art Gallery. a differentimage. He aptly calls his series Ne:w World Orderin which he makes a Communist contents hammer and sickle out of the Caribbean Sea (in "New World Order: Hammer and Sickle"). Or, wrap draws the eye to the center of "River Esslinger has created a haunting installation Calendar Listings 54 my personal favorite, "New World Order: Lake Ganges, Varansi, India," a stark contrast to the inspired by the bombing of Dresden. 55 Buena Vista," where the image of Mickey Mouse washed-out water that falls to the upper portion In a darkened room, images of Dresden's Contact appears, shqwing that it's a small world after all. of the collage. It's a more uplifting view of India cobblestone streets shudder under a rawhide Eight Reindeer 56 The fan1ed Magic Kingdom ride shares a true than some photographers create. net. Sounds fromthe Dresden Opera House eeri kinship with Connections. Stepping just a few Curtain Call 57 Measuring 19 inches by 62 inches, this partic ly shout through the speakers. Both audio and feet within the gallery transports you to differ ular piece uses 72 individual photographs to video sputter, as if being interrupted by gun Look Here 58 ent worlds and cultures.