LUMPEN

Robert Else Gallery, CSU Sacramento.
March 9-April 16, 2015
Monday - Thursday, 12pm-4:30pm

March 18, 2015

As described on the installation statement by Elaine O'Brien, "Lumpen is best experienced as a theater. Enter it as if stepping onto a stage." The moment you walk into the gallery space, you are transported into a different space. The feel is a little surreal but has a certain whimsy to it. There are two large artworks to the left and right that both compliment and contrast each other.

Taken from the stool in the corner. Robert Else Gallery, CSU Sacramento.

Both of the pieces use found objects, things that were gifts, as well as thrift store items. By walking around the both of them and getting really close, you can see little details and treasures.

On the left is Julia Couzens's Standing on the Feet of Pistoletto, Memory Conspires to Mobilize a Blanket of Dreams. There are hand-sewn "cozies" on the bricks that are supporting the structure, blankets, wire, a cut out from a Pixar movie, books, and bird houses wrapped in colorful yarns and twine. All intertwined together.


Couzens uses domestic crafts and skills to assemble this sculpture into a ' "fine art" aesthetic' that is seen as sort of random, but she is aware of placement and how much or what is revealed among the layers. It kind of raises our awareness of what do we value in society.

side detail.

On the right side is Ellen Van Fleet's The Bowerbird's Sister. She has done something like this work before in the 1960s and 70s out of gifted items from friends and found objects. In this work, she has bundles of branches holding up a large nest on one side and a wooden box on the opposite side, balancing. Withing the nest and the wooden box there is a hodgepodge of objects from minature Hopi dancer figure, various shaped lights, a purse and jewlery, to a cigarette box, books, cell phone cases, and other trinkets. The intricacy of branches are wonderful in its own way, but arranged like this is really cool.











 Details of the balancing box. At least I think It was balancing.

What makes this piece much more interesting is that on the side, there is this statement on the wall with a box resting on a stool.

The statement, in a nutshell, says that you can take one of the objects from The Bowerbird's Sister piece as a memento. What you have to do is take an index card and a pen from the box, draw a picture of the object you want. On the reverse side of the card, write your name , the date you came in, and the time. The earliest person to write down the object, receives the object at the end of the show. 











I really enjoyed coming to this small gallery installation here on campus. It really is interactive in a way you can get really close up to the pieces and get a full experience by walking around it, carefully looking at what else is in the box or nest.. The way different crafts were used to assemble both pieces are phenomenal.


Before coming to the installation, on two separate days, I saw Ellen Van Fleet, I think, making the basket-like, nest and tying the branches together. I also saw a girl sewing these fabrics around bricks. SORRY. Didn't take picture swhen this was happening.

P.S. Hope my arm is good enough for the selfie portion of this blog entry.