Art's Energetic Punctuation
of a Psychological Map
Part 2 of the series 'Profundity in Public Art'
by Matt Morris
In the first part of this project about sculpture that appears in or influences our views of Cincinnati's public spaces, I set an inquiry rolling about the role of public sculpture for the art viewer, the artist, and the community. In looking at George Rickey's work as it appears in downtown Cincinnati and in a natural environment through Paul Kreft's documentary, I discussed a work's relationship to its surroundings. The visual collaboration of object and place creates meaning and invites a broad range of responses from the viewer.
The relocation of the aesthetic object into the public realm (rather more conventional sites like museums, galleries, or private collections) overlays the geographic mapping of place with a process that maps the psychological qualities of spaces. What follows are sincere speculations that have spun out from my personal experiences with this set of public artworks. These particular works are ones that lend themselves to investigations into the kinds of energy—metaphysical and psychological—that culminate around the peculiar circumstances of their presentation.
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Some Effects of Small Scale
by A.C. Frabetti
I was stimulated by Manifest Gallery's recent exhibition '5th Annual Magnitude 7' to reflect on some of the ways in which small scale affects the viewer's experience of the work. 'Magnitude 7' required artists to submit work under seven inches in size. I also include works from other shows in the area.
In Ryan Mandell's New Density Model 2, as in the case of most architectural models, we find ourselves imagining it as something massive. Here, though, the absurdity of the composition transforms it from practicality to inutility. We enjoy the quirky placement of what appears a golf course over the residences. The metal scaffolding seems practical in its reinforced design, as if it really could support the structures above; these playful pseudo-functional elements allow us to enjoy the illusion even more so. The work may be seen as an inversion of architecture (both literally and figuratively), or as a symbol for our social values. In the context of this essay, its interest lies in its capacity to provoke the viewer to imagine an object many times larger than the work before them.
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Land Art in the Weston
by Selena Reder
While most of Thin Air Studio's work displays outdoors, their current installation returns to an indoor setting at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts. It fills most of the spacious street level of the gallery. It rises nearly forty feet high, reaches down to the lower level of the gallery, and undulates, in dramatic horizontal curves, throughout the length of the exhibition space.
The artists of Thin Air Studio, Christopher S. Daniel and Kirk Mayhew (and, until recently, Richard Fruth), have been building site-specific installations in Greater Cincinnati and elsewhere since 2002. During the two weeks of this particular assemblage, a flatbed truck piled high with branches remained parked on 7th Street. Daniel, Mayhew and about six other sweaty artists hauled branches into the gallery. The materials were found floating on the Ohio River, once dead but now alive again.
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