The Spectacular of the Vernacular

The Spectacular of the Vernacular
originally published in Kaleidoscope issue 10, Spring 2011
view in original context here

Distinctions between high and low have become increasingly difficult to pinpoint in recent decades, the channels between the two poles now more porous and nuanced than ever before. Building upon a history of large-scale exhibitions examining the relationship between the spheres of fine art and mass culture, Walker head curator Darsie Alexander’s exhibition “The Spectacular of the Vernacular” takes Mike Kelley’s observation—“the mass art of today is the folk art of tomorrow”— as its inspiration. Unlike exhibitions that have explored similar themes, “The Spectacular of the Vernacular” is not burdened by the weight of proving the relationships between the two spheres. Focusing on works made after 1970, the “The Spectacular of the Vernacular” explores a period of art in which the influence of mass culture is often taken for granted. The exhibition addresses how mass culture is experienced and addressed in daily life, as well as the appeal its forms have held for artists over the past four decades. In order to examine the scope and breadth of the influence of vernacular and consumer culture on contemporary art practice, Alexander brings together works that range in aesthetic and medium, engaging with humble, handmade, and folkloric iconography, as well as the sleeker sides of spectacle and commerce. With nearly forty works by more than twenty artists—Lari Pittman, Marc Swanson, Rachel Harrison, and Shannon Ebner among them—“The Spectacular of the Vernacular” presents both sides of the vernacular encounter: the nostalgia of roadside attractions and the cheerfulness of the carnivalesque.

Jessica Warboys

Originally published in Kaleidoscope issue 10, Spring 2011
view in original context here

Jessica Warboys

In the words of critic David Lewis, the work of Jessica Warboys “walks a tightrope between presence and disappearance.” Working across a range of media that includes sculpture, performance, and film, Warboys explores the psychological space created by objects and mis-enscène. With an emphasis on narrative and the evocative role that objects and processes play in the construction thereof, Warboys’s work toys with the totemic quality of her materials, placing their physicality at the center of a web of associations and metaphors. This is seen most clearly in her partnering of materials and elements. Warboys often uses found objects and harnesses natural forces as part of her process. For a technique she calls “sea painting,” the artist immerses canvases into the sea, allowing the waves and wind to trace their impression upon the canvases’ surfaces. Warboys connects her sea paintings and cyanotype photograms to her broader practice through their spatial and temporal relationship to performance or, in the artist’s words, “improvised gesture.” The career of the thirty-four-year-old London- and Parisbased artist is rapidly picking up speed: in 2011, she can be spotted in “Satellite 4,” an exhibition at Jeu de Paume curated by Raimundas Malasauskas; “Madame Realism,” a group exhibition in Maastricht’s Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, curated by Lisette Smits; Dublin Contemporary 2011; and at the Crédac in Ivry-sur-Seine this spring