Sheila Gallagher. Plastic Lila, 2013; melted plastic on armature; 81 × 64 1/2 in. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Stewart Clements Photography.

While State of the Art presents a diverse group of artists, certain aspects of the exhibition reinforce stereotypes of regional art. A number of works in the show eschew traditional media, with several using typical craft materials, like yarn, children’s toys, and fake foliage. While such materials have certainly been seen in mainstream contemporary art over the past several decades, commercial art centers and art fairs tend to feature accustomed media, like oil or acrylic on canvas, that appear sparingly in this show.

This focus on unconventional media is one of the show’s central conceits, and it becomes one of its strengths. Shelia Gallagher’s Plastic Lila (2013) embodies this embrace. Appearing at first as a large, brightly colored abstract painting, the work is revealed by closer inspection to consist solely of melted plastic items, created in sections using a typical barbeque grill. Similar to Marcel Duchamp’s declaration that the tube of paint is a readymade—meaning that paintings are indeed “readymades aided,” in his words—Gallagher’s painting explores the concept of what makes a painting by using found objects in the place of paint.[1] The wonderfully surreal sculptures of Jeila Gueramian are composed with crocheted quilts and other textiles, materials tritely connected to craft though increasingly appearing in mainstream art. Works that show the persistent experimentation with materials include the large, geometric-painting-like End of the Spectrum (2011) by Ghost of a Dream, which consists of a vivid array of hundreds of used lottery tickets.

Jonathan Schipper. Slow Room, 2011–14; installation: household furniture, cables, pulley, and electric motor; 192 × 192 in. Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Edward C. Robison III.

The show also emphasizes artistic labor; several works in the show are evidence of Herculean degrees of meticulous detail. Though there are works with predominantly conceptual natures, most of the works on display are firmly objects.[2] During a presidential-campaign season, such a selection aligns with the tropes of hard-working, blue-collar, middle America. This is not to say that object-based, labor-intensive work fails to succeed. On the contrary, Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun’s works, such as Seminole (America) (2014) are astounding, intricate portrayals of culturally specific hairstyles made of hand-cut paper. Jonathan Schipper’s installation also involved substantial labor. His Slow Room (2011–14) is a meticulous recreation of a banally decorated, middle-class, American living room. Subverting his labor, however, he attached every object to strings that will slowly retract during the course of the exhibition, eventually destroying the installation.

Throughout the show, a focus on landscapes also reinforces a mythical connection between artists and the vast land that forms the country. The portrayal of landscape played a significant role in American art history; the painters Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt and the photographer Carleton Watkins were some artists who used landscape to support the ideology of Manifest Destiny. The enduring interest of artists in the relationship between society and landscape—as well as efforts to control such landscape—is well represented in the exhibition.

Jason Vaughn. Endeavor, WI, 2013; archival pigment print; 40 × 50 in. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Jason Vaughn.

Among the works portraying landscapes are Jason Vaughn’s photographs, which feature different deer-hunting stands set in forested areas. The images are bucolic and reserved, but their subject matter addresses the supposed balance between society and nature, demonstrating humanity’s attempts to control or become part of the surrounding landscape. Jeff Whetstone’s video Drawing E Obsoleta (2011) shows the artist trying to draw a landscape using only a black snake on a white background; the snake’s writhing makes the task nearly impossible. Other artists use the theme of landscape to explore identity: Cobi Moules’s Untitled (Yellowstone, Swan Lake) (2014) utilizes the eponymous national park as a stage to explore his transgendered identity in the face of a Christian upbringing. And while not a traditional landscape, Chris Larson’s video Heavy Rotation (2011) shows the artist manipulating his immediate environment, cutting through a studio floor before making the entire room appear to rotate.

Vanessa L. German. Artist Considers the 21st Century Implications of Psychosis as Public Health Crisis or, Critical/Comedic Analysis into the Pathophysiology of Psychosis, 2014; mixed-media assemblage; 40 × 55 × 26 in. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo: Edward C. Robison III.

State of the Art illustrates the wide range of issues and types of media employed by artists currently working across the nation, not just those that benefit from the commercial spotlights on the most cosmopolitan locales. The show crafts a narrative: that America’s artists continue to experiment with unconventional materials, especially those with a certain folk history; that labor- and object-based works are valued; and that the theme of landscape still has a deep resonance with artists. With the exhibition’s broad curatorial aim that attempts to find common ground between a large, disparate group of artists, it can be difficult to find substantive meaning. Still, the exhibition features much work that should be seen, and showing the work of underrepresented artists should be a mission of all museums.

State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now is on view at the Telfair Museums through September 4, 2016.

NOTES

[1] Thierry de Duve, “The Readymade and the Tube of Paint,” in Kant After Duchamp (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1966), 163.

[2] One good example of a work with a primarily conceptual cast is the series Geolocation (2009–13) by Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman, in which the artists traveled to the locations indicated by social-media posts (with geo-location services turned on) and took photographs; these are displayed along with their respective messages.

Michael Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, assorted objects and printed text under glass, glass on shelf. 15 × 46 × 14 cm. 1973. Collection: National Gallery of Australia.

About the theme, as curator Jiang Jiehong said, “The Unseen is the main framework for this themed exhibition, and not a topic that it needs to revolve around. Under limited visual experience, projecting expectations that would exceed natural perceptive experience”

This themed exhibition is made up of three sections – with Guangdong Museum of Art as the main venue together with special project “Grandview Project” and the performances at the Guangzhou Opera House. The main venue is a traditional exhibition venue, every piece of work is a sense, “observing” some kind of explanation and illumination around the theme, the space seem to be in a temperate manner, contrived.

Jonathan Schipper, Slow Motion Car Crash, installation. Dimensions variable. 2006.

Giovanni Anselmo, For an Incision in an Indefinite Number of Thousands of Years, iron, rust preventive, wall inscription. 1969.

The Grandview Mall is a large general shopping center that everyone in Guangzhou is familiar with. All works presented do not have any description or label, “lurking” in the public spaces, which once again, highlight the issue of which is between the artist and the audience, between art and the public space.

Below are some thoughts expressed by the general public.

Passerby 1 - Middle-aged female customer: No, no idea what that is, don’t feel much about it.

Passerby 2 - Young male customer: (Next to Date and Left Right Left) why is there so many of these February 28^th? And these lights. Is it meant to turn this place into some sort of city landscape? This is a theme, right? (Blushes) And so it can’t leave. The city itself is a work of art. (If you weren’t told that this is a work of art) I think it’s cool. (About this lurking display) Also quite good, but you must really pay attention.

TOF Group, Aiolos, interactive installation. 2012.

Passerby 3 – general media worker: (facing Aiolos) This must be some kind of sales technique. I don’t think it’s art, I’ve done something like this in the studio. Some much absurdity in contemporary art, if the message is too clear it wouldn’t be contemporary art.

Passerby 4 – McDonalds employee: (About I’m lovin’ It) I’m sorry, we can’t answer your questions.

Passerby 5 – Male customer: (Real Estate 24-hour Elevator Scence) To see this in this kind of busy city is rare, very calming, contemporary. Not that I really understand it, it’s just a feeling I guess.

Passerby 6 – Female customer: I like it a lot, to see something new. I will pay attention, would like to look for similar kind of works. It’s elegant here, the only thing that I don’t really like is that there’re too many McDonald signs. The 2013 next to that is way too big, doesn’t look good in photos. What are your thoughts behind the theme? It should really stand out in the crowd, “The Unseen” shouldn’t be so eye-catching.

Passerby 7 – Female: (Near Never Forever) I saw this and I thought it’s a sign from the installation, probably got something to with how insensitive I am with this kind of things, it honestly didn’t cross my mind that it was a work of art.

Passerby 8 – Student of journalism: Don’t ask me, I don’t get this sort of thing.

Passerby 9 – Young shopkeeper: Is it that McDonalds is going out of business on February 28^th 2013? It looks like an ad, but not really, many customers asked me about it. Can’t really imagine it being an art work… If I weren’t an employee here and I see this sign outside the mall I’d come in to check it out as well, but I wouldn’t know where to ask about it.

Passerby 10 – Worker in the mall: (Facing Throwing Exercise, Turning and Property) That guy throwing over there is so stupid. I think that bike looks like an art work, looks like its about to burst out, I really want to yank it down and ride off with it. It’s interesting that they’d appear here. I’d like to look around for the others in the mall, but I’ve got to go to work, if it’s art I guess I’ll spend more time looking.

Passerby 11 – Cleaner: This is a prop for taking photos isn’t it.

MadeIn Company, Safe House, installation. Dimensions variable. 2012.

Passerby 12 – (Next to Safe House) Toy isn’t it? An Event in the mall? Don’t think it’s art.

It is apparent that art works at the venue have faded into the environment by going unnoticed. Especially in an environment where concentration is rapidly shifted, the “borderline” is hard to grasp, there is a sense of uncertainty and doubt, which again draws us back to the An Oak Tree – “What precisely is the artwork? That glass of water?”

As a journalist, a writer who communicates with the audience, being a communicative media, has inevitably become part of the exhibition.

John Cage, 4' 33'', Played by Du Yun.

The Guangdong Opera House is the venue focused on performance. There was a one-off performance on the second day of the opening ceremony especially for the guests and media. In the first scene, artist Du Yun reenacted John Cage’s 4’33”, just as the title of the “song” implies, she sat in silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds; “performed” Katie Paterson’s Earth-Moon-Earth on the piano, echoing the gramophone that the artist had placed in the main exhibition hall. The performance of Run by Du Yun and Claire Chase is emotionally charged, powerful. The work by artist group TASHWEESH of “the temporary resonating spaces related to spatial politics, subjectivity, narrative and reality, imagination and memories” is vivid, accompanied by an intense soundtrack and lasted for 40 minutes. Boikutt’s soft singing on the side makes this piece of work seem even more organic, rich and more imbued with the environment.