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Fallout from Warhol’s foundry
Artists who found out that found is in
By Brian Fitzgerald
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Untitled, Rachel Hellmann (CFA’05), oil on canvas, 2004. |
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A collage of “found” objects such as newspapers and ticket stubs? “One person’s trash may be another person’s art,” a skeptic might say, “but I’m certainly not going to look at it.”
But before they dismiss art that incorporates discarded images, photos, and text, Lynne Cooney invites those walking by the GSU Sherman Gallery to peer in the window — the Keepsake exhibition might just draw you in.
“There’s something about something found,” says Cooney, the gallery’s exhibitions coordinator. She insists that the appeal of Keepsake: A Juried Exhibition of Works Using or Inspired by Found Images goes beyond the kitsch value of, say, a 1960s Polaroid of a woman aiming a shotgun at an unknown target in her kitchen. (Yes, this strange image is featured in one of the pieces.)
“The attendance has been good partly because of the diversity of the works,” says Cooney. “People who normally walk by and see, for example, 10 large abstract paintings — I think they’re less inclined to come in. But when they see almost 40 pieces, all of which are very different, they tend to want to explore a little more.”
Keepsake, a joint student exhibition of the Sherman Gallery and the Photographic Resource Center (PRC), also includes 400 abandoned and recovered Polaroids submitted by Jason Bitner, the cofounder of Found magazine. In fact, patrons are invited to add to the gallery debut of Bitner’s bizarre collection.
“Everyday” art is popping up all over BU: the PRC is presenting a group show, Contemporary Vernacular, featuring artists who incorporate, among other things, found and anonymous photographs into their work, and at the BU Art Gallery through January 23 are more than 150 vernacular photographic works in an exhibition entitled In the Vernacular: Everyday Photographs from the Rodger Kingston Collection. Vernacular photographs are those taken by unestablished photographers for utilitarian purposes.
Found art seems more popular than ever these days, but it’s not a new phenomenon. Society’s detritus has been used as a means of creative expression throughout the 20th century. Leslie Brown, who juried Keepsake, says that the long history of this practice in the art world began with collages. “Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque inserted cut-up pieces of newspapers into their paintings,” she points out.
“Junk art,” a phrase first coined by critic Lawrence Alloway in 1961, continued through the 1960s in the sculptural form known as assemblage. “Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg often used found materials,” says Brown. “The students in this exhibition are in good company.”
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Curley Sue, Rebecca Greene, mixed media, 2004. |
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Keepsake was open to all Boston area college art programs. Brown chose 39 out of the 100 works submitted, and she says several pieces by BU students stood out, including a painting in egg tempera by Ann Kirchner (CFA’05) using a photograph of her young grandmother sitting on the steps of her house. An abstract painting by Rachel Hellmann (CFA’05) was inspired by found images of flowers.
A few mixed media works almost jump off the gallery walls to capture the attention, including Laura De Waal’s Forgotten Unread Memories #3 and #1, which incorporate used books, found photos, nails, and drawer handles. In Mike Grimaldi’s What Has Become of the Dollar? the viewer is treated to a miniature shopping carriage filled with empty containers: a Sprite soda can, a Parliament cigarette pack, a Ramen noodles package, and a barbecue-flavored potato chip bag. “This made me think about Andy Warhol and his Campbell’s soup cans,” says Brown. “It’s humorous and poignant, like many of the works.”
Of course, several pieces bring out the voyeur in us all, including Elle Brennen’s monoprint There Was Magic in Our Joy. The title is a line from a note incorporated in the piece. A lost letter — possibly from a jilted lover? — filled with mystery and sadness, it imparts a meaningful detail about an anonymous couple.
“Some of the artists reexplore people’s pasts,” says Cooney. “There are photos of family members, but there are also photos of strangers. You look at a photo and start to wonder who are the people in it, who took it — you can make up your own narrative. I think the interpretive nature of the exhibition makes it especially interesting.”
Keepsake: A Juried Exhibition of Works Using or Inspired by Found Images is free and open to the public at the GSU Sherman Gallery through December 17. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 617-358-0295.
19
November 2004
Boston University
Office of University Relations