In this work and for that matter all artwork, we bring our own experience to the moment and that is what can make all the difference. The scale plays a major role in requiring the viewer to stop and study the contents, calling on our own memories and perceptions. If it were 6 x 12” on board it might pass as a postcard. This flat, neutral depiction of an empty house captures the mundane.
The very large oil on canvas painting, Hallway, 84 x 180, by the artist Becky Suss from Philadelphia, dominates the entrance to the exhibition. This is where images start to lead their own life - becoming more or less autonomous.”īecky Suss, Hallway, 2017, oil on canvas, 84 x 180 inches Courtesy of The West Collection For me, the most interesting feature of this process is that the interpretation of reality gains a new actuality, forming a corpus of imagery that becomes more and more disconnected from what actually took place. He says in a statement, “We experience reality through interpretation. The images of Jasper de Beijer, an artist from the Netherlands, seem to want to break the perception of what we see as real, juxtaposed and complimented by our own experience and memory. Again, this feels like an ethnographic image capturing a cultural act by what might be described as third world tribal individuals living in the jungle of Brazil. When I first experienced this image, I was taken back by my own thoughts of a place where a shrine was erected to the remnants of a Brazilian airplane. Jasper de Beijer, The Brazilian Suitcase (Part 2) #1, 2017, c-print 44.5 x 67 inches Courtesy of the artist and Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York Perhaps it is much better to say “poetic stance.” But even using the phrase “conceptual stance” creates an unnecessary barrier between the viewer and the images. Anyone can find their way into these accessible depictions and explore the familiar, the strange, the formalistic and the conceptual stance of each image. Concurrently, the viewer’s entry point into these pictures is unclouded by unfamiliarity with Contemporary art.
Like the inquiring viewers of old encountering astonishing collections of objects, we today also experience a primary emotional connection to this type of work because its meaning is self-evident. The ethos of the exhibition sees parallels with the cabinets of curiosities from the past. Goody says in a statement, “These works represent something just short of an inundation of content, and the presentation- “salon style” - affirms the idea that kaleidoscopic subject matter is enriching and arouses curiosity about the way in which contemporary artists use data and themes in their work to create a reflection of their lifespan on earth. Fueled by contemporary image making, the exhibition is a collection of twenty-one artists ranging in gender, location, age, and location, providing artwork that includes photography, video, painting, and drawing. Rather than a Detroit-based solo artist or group show, Dick Goody, Chairman of the Department of Art and Art History, and Director Oakland University Art Gallery has curated an exhibition that draws on artists from various parts of world that provide an experience in imagery that questions fantasy, deception and truth. Oakland University Art Gallery, Ethics of Depiction: Landscape, Still Life, Human, Installation Image Courtesy of OUAG, 2017