LUMPEN: THE ARTIST PANEL;

MARCH 19TH, 2015
TIME: 6:30PM
LOCATION: MARIPOSA 1001



On this one Thursday night, I attended a panel discussing the LUMPEN installation with local Sacramento/ Davis artists, Ellen Van Fleet and Julia Couzens. The idea for the show first began about a year ago for a research project by Professor Elaine O'Brien while reaching out to friend. Only being familiar with Van Fleet's 2-D artworks, O'Brien was mesmerized by pictures of her previous  conceptual works from the 1960s-70s. It was this artwork that inspired her to bring these works back to life.  In Couzen's works, there is so much color, texture and line. There was a whimsy in her approach to bundles and a fine semi-logical way of assembling these bundles. Both works presented the uses of crafts, like sewing and basket weaving. They also take a

At the panel, both artists discussed their previous works and how it lead up to the installation on campus. It all started with Ellen Van Fleet.

Van Fleet, started with a story of how she got into her art work or style while working the gift wrapping counter at a store that sold items made by blind people (not to be confused with gift wrapping for people that are blind). She enjoyed the movement of the tissue paper, its translucence, and how it breathes when you wave it around.

"I'm fairly simple and really curious. I want to make an idea that isn't laborious in a simple and most direct way." At the same time, she showed an image of a leaning tower of tissue paper with some dragging on the ground. "It moves well with people in the exhibition space," explaining that the movement of the people go along with movement of the paper.

She showed us a bunch of pictures from her other installation and conceptual works in the 1970s. One was similar to the Bowerbird's Sister work installed at the university and a picture of a chicken. She explained that the picture was of a sleeping chicken. She had a show where she would hypnotize chickens and learned to do so as a kid growing up in Eureka.
Van Fleet does not really have anything planned out, at least not totally explaining she likes "food for the eye" meaning something pleasuring to the eye.

Julia Couzens. What can I say about the talk about Julia. I'm not going to be rude, but I had a hard time understanding what her direction was.

Part of her references come from her drawings that remind the viewer of architectural drawings or drafts. They're geometric and quite logical. She has a lot of understanding of linear patterns and configuration.

Here's where it gets so confusing. She likes the discovery of the journey and works against herself and logic. She wants to disturb the control and her own compulsions. She, in my view, is a perfectionist, and isn't satisfied with her end results.

Couzen's bundles are cute and whimsical though. She enjoys just layering, covering, and weaving these little pieces of fabric and string and turns them around to see the backside's result, saying she has no control over it. She says it's slightly disturbed, messy and still maintains it's linear pattern.

Her assemblage of bundles at the installation have a linear energy, like a drawing. She sees them almost like a tableau or a stage set. Unfortunately, she didn't like how they were and finds them too constructed. She announced that she needed something to submit by the deadline. So the last time I saw it to right now, it's slightly different.

All together