Yesterday in my comments about my experiences at ArtPrize I mentioned the work of Kaitlin Brewer whose installation Shattered is on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. I had said that the effect of shattered glass she creates with hot glue was amazing, but I had to consider more whether it was good art. I have considered this work more and thought today Id share some of those thoughts in the ArtPrize spirit of viewing, considering, and talking about art. I do so with some trepidation because its not at all my habit to offer public critiques of other artists work. If you havent seen the work and are at ArtPrize I certainly encourage you to do so and form your own opinions. The effect she achieves is startlingly real. It looks as though the windows and mirrors around the art museum have been broken and shattered. In thinking about it more I can recognize she has exhibited a good degree of skill in drawing, and observation of broken glass to create these, so much so that the act of crafting them almost becomes unnoticed in much the same way that the work of a skilled video editor isnt recognized because it allows the story to flow seamlessly. So Im then left looking at a broken window presented as art. There is a lot of beauty in the lines and forms created. She has a good sense of composition to the works. If these were drawings or paintings of broken glass, even ones rendered in a hyper-realistic fashion I could readily understand it as showing us the often unseen beauty in the world around us, or the beauty to be found in instances of decay. The paintings of Mary Jean Beimers Reusch come to mind here where she is focusing on cracked pavement and plants growing in the spaces. However, Kaitlin Brewer is not displaying the work as drawings or paintings. She has created this as an installation. Its not just any windows or mirrors that are shattered. It is the ones in the art museum. The ones those of us familiar with the space know as being whole and intact. In this case shes working to fool us into believing the glass of our familiar public spaces is broken. It could be seen then as a big practical joke, or we could be intended to imagine stories behind the broken glass. Was it broken due to a shooting? Was there rioting in the streets as we are seeing happen all over the world in recent years? Was it an earthquake? What Ive come to is that I view this work as a fine example of trompe loeil work. Though it was done with a non-traditional medium of that genre. I feel like it is successful and will give it a vote for the ArtPrize competition. However, at the same time, as an artist, Im disappointed because I feel like a good work was on the cusp of being a stellar piece. The work has SO much more potential in my opinion. Im making the assumption based on what shes presented that she has strong drawing and compositional skills. I would have liked to see the drawing of this shattered glass taken to another level beyond just a trompe loeil image of broken windows. What if she had rendered other imagery with the cracks and fractures of the shattered glass? In this way the work could have been making powerful statements about shattered lives, shattered economies, shattered culture, shattered politics, shattered environmental issues, etc. Just imagine what the effect might have been if we were seeing not just a broken window, but multiple breaks in the window that formed the image of someone in tears? What might the effect be if it was an image of someone standing regal and proud? How about if it was some image of the beauty of nature being formed from the shattering of the windows in our public spaces? I dont even know that specific recognizable images are needed to bring the work to another level. In college my metals professor, Beverly Seley, would often use the phrase, If it were mine.... Ive liked that approach so Ill use it here. If it were mine I would probably have explored directing the shattering of the glass into patterns or designs of beauty, the sorts of designs I strive to do with chased work on my vessels. In this case it would still have the effect of being a broken window, but we would also know the breaking wasnt an accident. It was done to form a new sort of beauty. It would be done to transform the clear solid window into this new image. For me this would be exploring the notion that acts of creation are also acts of destruction. Whenever we create something new we have lost what was before. As such it is worth considering the value of our creations before me make them. Id also be strongly tempted to create some works that had representational imagery that could be associated with building a new, better world. In this my hope would be to address the collective process we are all on whether we acknowledge it or not of forming a new human culture/civilization from what remains of a declining industrial fossil fuel age. Its likely to be a tumultuous process, with much shattering involved, but actively engaged could result in a higher quality of life. I guess Ive gone on long enough here. While I find Kaitlin Brewers installation interesting and successful as it is, my mind is left swimming with how much more it could have been. Certainly, your own opinions may differ. artprize.org/kaitlin-brewer/2014/shattered-2014
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 16:36:12 +0000
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