A Critique by Kimberely Rodriguez on “Knew Normal” at 516 Arts.
I’m not surprised that 516 Arts is in downtown Albuquerque. It reeks of government funding and is closely placed between Ray J’s Smoke Shop and a clothing store called The Octopus and the Fox. Luckily there was an adequate amount of free parking.
If you have time to see just one art exhibition this month, “Knew Normal”, a rather confusing selection of artwork by contemporary, old and emerging, national and local artists should not be it. I found that the artwork was poorly placed and quite frankly, just flat out boring.
Picture Credit: Kimberely Rodriguez
I walked into the narrow spaced building of 516 arts. It is colored with white walls. I am reluctantly guided upstairs to the exhibition “Knew Normal”. I am somewhat greeted by a small 12-inch grey sign to my right in a common "arial” font. The sign read in all caps exactly that “Knew Normal”. Under the sign it had the dates August 29- October 31, 2015, the dates the exhibition will take place. Under the sign and to the right was a booklet in a plain, clear box that could be found at your local dollar tree. I learned from the booklet two very important variables. The first was the angle of the exhibition “Knew Normal”. The booklet read, “...each selected artwork tells a story about how our physical and psychological environments are shaped by current climates, whether social, political or environmental. Several of the artists also look to the future, as characters of the existing universe disappear, or to a time when Earth is no more.” The second was the themes of the exhibition which are loss, uncertainty, hope, and humor.
That being said I focus myself on the exhibition itself. The first thing that I notice is the continuation of mere white walls from the floor to the ceiling, the only explanation that comes to mind is that the walls are white so that it doesn’t take away from the art work itself.
Picture Credit: Kimberely Rodriguez
The first piece of art that catches my eye is placed in the center of the north side of the exhibition. It is the work of Wendy Mason and is titled “Fragrance of 2009.” It is placed on top of a 4-foot plain blank pillar. To one’s eye it is obviously a perfume bottle made of out of a potato. Literally. The five-inch potato is naturally colored and very real. It is even growing green potato plants which is probably only appealing to a gardeners eye. Centered on top of the potato is a vintage looking pale pink “pump”. It is rather proportional to the potato. There is a lack of movement and skill in this work by Wendy Mason. The artwork is merely unfathomable at a glance. It lacks beauty and eye appeal. There are no patterns and the brown and pink colors don’t complement nor enhance each other. It is dull. At this point, I am forced to look at the description given below the piece. Finally, an explanation but STILL it is not one that I am looking for. “Fragrance of 2009 combines a common, affordable food (the potato) with a somewhat dated symbol of excess and luxury (the perfume atomizer) to create a personal tongue-in-cheek reference to the recession that began to take hold in 2008.” This description only gives me one answer to multiple questions. That is, what does this mean? I am still troubled as to how this fits into the “Knew Normal” which is based off the future, not something that happened in 2008. I’m also baffled by the fact that I could’ve made this in under five minutes in my kitchen with minimal materials, titled it and put it in an art gallery claiming that it has a deeper meaning than what was displayed.
Already tempted to turn around, leave the art gallery and never return, I involuntarily continued through the narrow white walled, seemingly untalented space. I recognize that all the art pieces in the exhibition are widely spaced. Maybe due to the lack of preparation of the exhibition.
I pass about four uninteresting pieces of art on both sides of the somewhat narrow hallway which includes a jewelry piece by Naomi Kizhner, a small toy depiction by Liliana Porter, and a painting by Gala Bent. At this point I am more than halfway done with the exhibitions entirety, for I can see the descending stairs at the south end.
Picture Credit: Via 516arts.org
To my left, I come up to two picture frames placed side by side with maybe four inches in between them. I am not surprised that the picture frames are white and by this time, you shouldn’t be either. They are both about 34″ in height and 44″ in length. They both portray white canvases with the word “Dusty” in the left picture frame, and the word “Muddy” in the picture frame to the right. The words are perfectly centered on the white canvases. The words are “written” in a cursive pale pink writing. The pale pink seems to appear very similar if not exact to the pale pink of the perfume atomizer of Wendy Mason. At a closer look, I notice the “writing” is made out of what appeared to be tiny seashells placed closely together to form the cursive font. I decided to take a different approach to this “piece of artwork” than I did Wendy Mason’s. I read the arts description before trying to evaluate the meaning and how it contributes to a “Knew Normal”. I guess you can say I took a more open-minded approach. I learned that this isn’t just one piece but it is two pieces related to each other. The picture frame to the left is titled “ I Wish the Ocean Sounded More Like Dusty Springfield” and the one to the right is titled “ I Wish the Ocean Sounded More Like Muddy Waters”. These are the works of Dario Robleto a contemporary artist from Houston, Texas.The description did nothing more than confirm that the words were indeed made out of seashells, apple blossom seashells to be exact. It read, “Dario Robleto is a conceptual artist perhaps best known for his meditations on loss and absence. Always attracted by frontiers-- the deep sea, the brink of the solar system, the edge of death-- Robleto is following his practice, and the examples of these polymaths, into his own borderland, where distinctions between art and science, amateur and professional, matter less than the spirit of inquiry and the earnest desire to understand what it means to be human.” Suddenly I am beginning to love the description of Wendy Mason’s art work because this one is getting me absolutely nowhere. I am still confused as to where the words “dusty” and “muddy” came from and how the hell they relate to a “Knew Normal.” If this is able to be in an art gallery and recognized by many, I demand that every company that makes home decor and sells it at Hobby Lobby gets recognized as well, because it might as well be the same thing.
I walk past the rest of the art pieces and it is clear to me that their is not much more to see. All in all “Knew Normal” gave me a false impression of what climate change is like and what the future will be like. Maybe the artists didn’t dare to be themselves or maybe it was the curator of the exhibition. Maybe it was due to the government funding but it appeared as if the makers of “Knew Normal” did not care passionately about how it was made, what it could have addressed, and it’s ability to communicate what the future and climate change are to be in a visual language.
