Shapeshifter at Country Club
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Chris Radtke, Ghost (Wall) 24, 2009. Nylon mesh and poly-monofilament, each: 23x23x22 inches. Overall dimensions variable. Photo Courtesy of Country Club.
Chris Radtke, Ghost (Wall) 24, 2009. Nylon mesh and poly-monofilament, each: 23x23x22 inches. Overall dimensions variable. Photo Courtesy of Country Club.
Post-Minimalism as defined in the late 1960s was a response to the closed and reductive trends of Minimalism. With more varied materials and even organic forms, Post-Minimalists re-engaged the viewer with open and dynamic compositions. This re-forming of the form is the subject of Shapeshifter, currently on view at Country Club in Oakley. While sharing with Minimalism a focus on shape, the shifting these artists enact clearly reveals an affinity for an interest in exploring the physicality of form, the human body, and our social concerns consistent with Post-Minimalism.
Even if the exhibition title does not offer enough of a clue as to what the show is about, upon entering the gallery, the number of sculpted squares and other minimal forms reveal quickly the conversation. However, if the stark white walls and hard edge forms of Minimalism seems daunting or uninviting, this show is not. The gallery, filled with organic forms that are both tactile and recognizable, is welcoming.
The response to Minimalism witnessed in the 1960s is repeated here with Chris Radtke's Ghost (Wall) 24. This work is made up of 24 nylon mesh boxes hung on a wall. Recalling Donald Judd, the boxes are perfectly aligned in a grid. Yet Radkte's grid denies the permanence of much of Judd's work. Over the course of the current exhibition, the nylon mesh boxes slowly sag by natural force of gravity. While this morphing of the grid responds to the Minimalist's celebration of the stability of form, Radtke's work reflects a more corporeal tendency of shifting shapes. Along with representing the shifting of space, Ghost (Wall) 24 recalls the natural tendency of our own body's response to time. As our bodies begin to sag with time, the wall too must contend with natural forces.
Stephen Irwin, page 7, 2009. Altered vintage pornography. 11x8 inches. Photo Courtesy of Country Club.
Stephen Irwin's Still Lives also deals with the body. By transforming vintage pornography—timages that date back to his own childhood—the Kentucky artist creates the equally familiar "Face or Vase" optical illusions. He only slightly obscures the pornography images by painting over certain body parts. Irwin then puts these new forms together to create the well-known optical illusion. I'm not sure if Irwin is particularly political, but this shifting of shapes and forms wonderfully undercuts censorship. While seemingly blotting out porn, the recontextualizing of these images tempts the viewer to take a closer look. Like a public peep show, Irwin's altered vintage pornography takes advantage of our own natural tendencies to move closer to the image to see if we can see what we can see. Irwin's work simultaneously explores form, social mores, and the viewer's interaction in public spaces.
The decision of how we move through space is the subject of Beth Campbell's hanging metal structures. Unlike Alexander Calder's work, Campbell's mobiles are more like spacial drawings as well as drawings in space. They do not focus on form as much as they represent a network of decisions we make, paths we take. Made of materials such as steel and copper wire, the mobiles recall a network made up of branches of thought processes or even movements through space. These are not randomly created networks, but reflect a specific problem or exploration she has engaged. One such mobile for example reflects the decisions made when walking her dog...which path to take this time should it be the same as the one she took the day before? The mobiles represent her own thoughts or paths, but also reflect universal dynamics of even the mundane. Hardly minimal, Campbell's mobiles present almost unlimited possibilities.
Exhibition view of Shapeshifter at Country Club. Photo Courtesy of Country Club.
Shapeshifter also includes works by Jimmy Baker, Keith Benjamin, Anthony Luensman, and Letitia Quesenberry. The exhibition is now on view at Country Club in Oakley and will run through April 10, 2010.
