LIFE TRANSMISSIONS is an exhibit in the Guggenheim Gallery
located at Chapman University in Orange, California. The show is open from
October 6 through November 2, 2014. This show is constructed of a variety of
pieces from different artists composed from a wide range of materials. The overall
feel of the show was slightly overwhelming because of large piece of artwork in
the center of the room. Although, the rest of the works were oranigzed neatly
and spaced out enough. As stated in the press release, “what came first the
chicken or the egg?” is an overall theme of the show. It is an interesting
exhibition that brings forth the thought process of how we connect our
interpretation of the beauty of art with the rest of the world.
Art is a way of
expressing our emotions from life, memories, and moments, and how we transmit
these emotions through all forms of art is unique. This show transmits ideas of
art and its connection to the world in many different forms through painting,
drawing, and video installations. As humans we are able to channel the world
through our many senses. In the same sense, through these different forms of
art we are able to interpret the unknown and the unseen. For instance one cannot
see sound, and cannot see the emotions of anger or love. LIFE TRANSMISSIONS is both successful and unsuccessful with
implementing these aspects throughout all of the artworks.
In Jed
Ochmanek’s two oil paintings on aluminum express this theme of “LIFE TRANSMISSIONS”. These abstract paintings,
Polarity and Highlands, are effective in conveying movement and fluidity in
colors, but not as successful in communicating life. Though the meaning is not
exactly clear within these two oil paintings, one can infer that these painting
are expressions of an emotion or emotions from life. Due to the brush strokes
and color scheme one can visually see the emotion of confusion and solitude.
Both paintings resemble the same color tones, of cooler less saturated hues that
creates this kind of mellow feel. The confusion may come across due to the
opposite brush strokes for the two paintings. Why is one painting’s strokes
horizontal and the other vertical? It could be because of the different
emotions felt while painting these abstract works.
The other oil
paintings are composed of three pieces that convey similar arrangements of
sound waves. In life we are able to hear things because of the sound waves that
bounce off of objects; however, we are unable to visually see these waves.
These three pieces imitates the movements of these waves and the colors
presented is a visual of this unseen movement.
Karl Haendel
formulated an intriguing piece composed of 6 rectangle shaped frames with cut
outs of different newspaper headings in each frame. The back is matte black and
this creates a strong contrast with the light newspaper color that is on top. This
piece in particular brings out a plethora of emotions. Like a delicate picture,
these cut headings of highly important societal issues are enclosed in a
protected glass frame. This is symbolic of the different outcomes and emotions
one would have based from these conflicting issues. This piece is not
successful in visually representing these emotions, but is successful in
creating them because it involves so many touchy societal and political issues
that affect different cultures and organizations in many ways. These 6 pieces
takes these sensitive world issues and transmits them into a neverending
conversation between us all.
Nightfall, 1971, created by Bas Jan Ader is a video
installation that is 3.26 minutes long. The second installation in the show is
called Painting the Town; by Megan
Daalder is a digital video-loop that is 5.42 minutes long. These two video
installations are not as prominent as the rest of the works in the show and
quite frankly I almost missed seeing them in general. The placements of the
video installations were awkward and this made it hard to focus my attention on
them because of how small they were. Painting
the Town was in the corner behind the entrance of the exhibit and it goes
unnoticed until you exit the show. This piece was much different from the other
ones. It had an invisible man exploring the streets of areas that would be
presumed to be homes for homeless people. This is another example of exploring
the unknown and any person can invision themselves in this person’s position in
the video. The unknown individual riding along a homeless man’s cart is
outlined and filled in with moving rainbow colors. This represents the uniqueness
of every human being and helps include every gender, race, and culture into this
conversation of exploring life’s mystery.
The large
charcoal piece in the center of the exhibit could have affected this as well.
Joshua Callaghan created a work called Focus,
2012 20 x 26 inches large, made with charcoal on linen. This piece consumed the
majority of the space in the show. It was a larger than life, realistic, 2
dimensional drawing of a car. This piece is creative in its way of portraying
life. When one is in a car you are driving horizontally, not vertically. Art is
a creative measure in which we can alter into imaginative things. This piece
specifically alters our reality of what a car is supposed to do. It is supposed
to drive us to our destination ahead of us, but this drawing is directing our
attention above us. This is iconic of the heavenly world and the unknown. We live
in our reality and know our surroundings, but this drawing makes us wonder of
the undiscovered and the things we do not see everyday. This piece is a good representation
of the transmittion of the unexplored in our own lives. Art is an exploration of
our own ideas and this piece is understood differently within each individual.
LIFE TRANSMISSIONS indicates all the experiences we have in
life and how we all react to them personally. Each person goes through individual
life experiences and not a single person will have the same experience nor feel
the exact emotions, and this is what makes this exhibit so intriguing. The
complexity and unidentifiable observations of all the artworks brings out an
application of involvement with the audience as well. Without the title this
exhibit would not work together. The title is what ties the pieces together and
makes them uniform with the theme. LIFE
TRANSMISSIONS draws the audience’s attention to the connection of art and
its surrounding world.
