CURATOR Q&A : Kim Uchiyama for BMG Midtown's FREAK FLAG
BMG: FREAK FLAG marks your second curatorial project at Brian Morris Gallery. Your first, one year ago, was PHYSICAL PROPERTY.
How are these works “freak flags” and how did you come up with that concept for the show? Did the space itself impact your choices for the show?
KU: A flag is often a rectangle of fabric that uses symmetrical two-dimensional design. A flag elevates itself beyond its material – it’s organized in such a way that it communicates with the viewer on a symbolic level. Because of this, it shares certain obvious qualities with painting.
The original idea for the exhibit was to explore aspects of sign and symbol in painting, by means of paint, fabric, collage, photography. Painters that often worked on a large scale - such as Stephen Westfall, Marthe Keller and Ann Shostrom – were good starting points. Al Loving’s work embodied the collective spirit of everyone’s endeavors. You could say they were all Flagrantly Flying Flags! The concept for the exhibit became further expanded by the inclusion of James Clark’s hanging light sculpture, which acts as the show’s centerpiece, both physically and psychically.
Brian Morris Midtown’s gallery is an immensely unusual and provocative setting, rich with history: a former home to the Grolier Club, a disco at one time, a Persian carpet warehouse in its most recent incarnation, with eighteen foot ceilings, wood paneling, even a fireplace, housed in a 19th century landmark building. I immediately thought of cavernous hunting lodges, hung with tapestries and banners, where people would gather in looming, darkened interiors and commune with their distinctive surroundings – a specific kind of experience, one where the works could actually work with each other to distinguish themselves.
BMG: The show is very inter-generational. Was that important for you when you started thinking about the show?
KU: Al Loving would have been the oldest artist in the exhibit. He died in 2005. Noah Post, in his thirties, is the youngest artist I’ve included. I like the idea that people of different ages and diverse backgrounds can arrive at profound communication via abstraction. I think there’s something universal – and unifying – about sharing in the development of visual language. It’s important to know about those artists who were here before we were, and who inspired us - who still survive along with us because of what they contributed. It’s also great to know that there are younger artists, equally inspired, who will carry on this lineage.
BMG: How do you hope the show impacts those who come to see it?
KU:The idea of FREAK FLAG – letting your Freak Flag fly – is a metaphor for expression raised high, continuously expanding and really reaching for it! It would be great if the show can uplift and encourage community, as well as bedazzle the senses.
Kim Uchiyama, Light Study #28, 2014, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 40 in.
FREAK FLAG will be on view until January 11th.