"peterson principles - the writing and wisdom of keith peterson"…

jeffery mcnary

Keith Peterson is clearly attracted to books, to the work and business of letters. He is rarely averted from the genre with the exception of his occasional photography, which opens other boulevards, his wife Gail, and his bookstore cat, Hodge. He doesn’t devote much time to purple or yellow pages. His work is way too busy bursting out,…and offering suggestions.

Peterson’s first novel, “The Body in the Bookstore Sink”, a mystery, was driven by memories of a close friend, Steve, and stories about him. Father Stephan, the character based on the friend, is a Russian Orthodox priest. Here we find Seth Pearson, a laid back , used book dealer in Chicago were minding when Seth finds a dead body in the bookstore when closing up. There’s a movie star with a history, killers, and an Ed Wood appreciation society. He even tosses in a drug dealing gang rolling on Chicago’s West Side. Among other things, this unlikely crew’s coming together would help in funding the repair for the roof of Father Stephan’s church. There’s no mythic connection between his characters. They live in real time…in existing situations. Nothing dispiriting about that.

There’s a complexity to the writer, book store owner, author, poet, burlesqued minimalist, as his writing moves comfortably from one genre to another. “With fiction”, says Peterson, “one story at a time is the most I can manage, if that. A poem will occur sometimes now and then, but I can't explain how or why.”

Recently, the writer, proprietor did a read of his work in progress, “Lucky Buck” at SHoP (Southside Hub of Production),“ a community centered project that encouraged local culture making, etc in “Lucky Buck",
Peterson kick in with the 2003, Steve Bartman sticking out his hand for a foul, and devastating the Cubs run for the World Series. The baseball involved becomes  famous. Unknown to all but an old beer vendor called A-Train, the real ball was captured by Randy Buckly, an old friend of, yep, Father Stephan. A decoy he set loose was the one which was auctioned off for a huge sum. Now, a few years later, Randy is dead, a  thief is plaguing Seth’s bookstore, the 10 year old west side kid named Toy, living secretly in Randy’s apartment is on the run with the actual ball. Or is it the reall? Oh, and Pierre Tessouat Mather, an occultist, a retired mob bookmaker and Cubs collector are all vectoring in on that baseball.  Father Stephan wants justice,Hamid  wants  vengeance.

Peterson’s intimate rapport with the characters, and the static and frenetic coexist, in his work disparities of American culture entertainingly collide with a very subtle and yet sharp wit. They are simple deals, despite points of soaring eclecticism. ”In the Father Stephan/Seth novels, many of the characters are based, to greater or lesser extent, on real people. With some, I may take simply a physical appearance and fill in the blank with what I need. With many others - Father Stephan, Seth, Stan Wilson, Allison, Angel, Charlie Ruggles - these are the fictional versions of people I know”, Peterson shares.  “The only way I can spend time with friends of mine who have passed away is to write them into my books. So, I suppose I'm writing a kind of 'roman a clef'. The trick to keeping them in their lanes is to be able to hear their voices, because the way a person talks is so rooted in their personality.” He continues, “The big danger, always, is to have a character begin to talk like me. With the characters I completely make up, that can be a danger, and I do try to imagine more of their lives than I put in the book - it's the aspect of writing fiction about which I feel most insecure.”

I have to admit I've never considered the question - I think the authors you mention are more serious of purpose than I have been, at least with my bookstore novels. My characters, while often based on real people, would probably strike many as less 'realistic' than those in Algren's romantic naturalism, or Bellow, whom I won't attempt to categorize. I suppose my stuff is simply rooted in my own personal geography - my friends, what I've done for a living in bookselling and the characters I've met that way, my imagination, such as it is. A few characters are not very realistic at all, like PierreTessouat Mather and his weird little acolyte Edwardo.”

Peterson generally writes at the bookstore, (Chicago’s Selected Works) when given the time. “But there's no particular time, other than whenever I get a notion about what's going to happen next, or think of a line of dialogue that is perfect for the beginning of a chapter. Right now, at the stage I'm at with “Lucky Buck”, a strange tangle of plot lines need somehow to be resolved, so I spend my time thinking more about that - the what's going to happen in part.

“Besides Randy and Steve, there were only a couple other ball shaggers outside the ball park, it not having evolved into the trendy and competitive activity that it would twenty or thirty years later”, Peterson writes. “There was Eddie something or other - Old Time Eddie they called him. He must have been retired because every time Randy and Steve were out there, Eddie was there too, sitting on his metal milk crate, listening to the game on one of those transistor radios that were becoming more common lately as the prices dropped. And then there was another big kid leaning against a tree across the street. The big door to the firehouse was open too, but those guys sitting on chairs there didn’t count. They never got up to chase a ball”, it continues.
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When asked if and how his work fits into the vernacular of the so-called “Chicago Writers” school, Peterson responds, “I have to admit I've never considered the question - I think the authors you mention are more serious of purpose than I have been, at least with my bookstore novels”. Continuing, “My characters, while often based on real people, would probably strike many as less 'realistic' than those in Algren's romantic naturalism, or Bellow, whom I won't attempt to categorize. I suppose my stuff is simply rooted in my own personal geography - my friends, what I've done for a living in bookselling and the characters I've met that way, my imagination, such as it is. A few characters are not very realistic at all, like PierreTessouat Mather and his weird little acolyte Edwardo”, the story continues, “They had a radio on in the firehouse that you could hear. It was a 1:20 start, one of those famous Wrigley day games, and the stands were partially filled, like usual, though they couldn’t see much from where they were. That old ticket taker who’d been there for a million years at Gate N, the entrance to the bleachers, he usually wandered off by the sixth inning, and that was when they would sneak into the park. Then they could sit where they wanted - nobody really cared.”

It’s difficult to resist going futher without sharing,“ ‘Banks is up’ commented Old Time Eddie from his milk crate. Steve stopped talking and gazed over the outfield wall. The old red brick wall, the dark green of the scoreboard off to the left in the middle of the bleachers, and the blue afternoon sky way up above with one lone cloud, struck him as suddenly beautiful, or even deeper than beautiful, somehow. Inside the park, the fans started cheering, the kind of roar that meant something good was happening for the Cubs. Suddenly there was a flash of white and a thunk up above them, then a rattle and a soft crack, like. A couple leaves and a twig fell from the tree out onto the street. Old Time Eddie was up, and the kid across the street started running over to Randy’s tree. After another couple soft thuds from above, the Ernie Banks home run ball fell down directly into Randy’s mitt, cradled there in his arms as he leaned there against the tree. A couple more little twigs fell down too and one glanced off his head. The older kid skidded to a stop with an amazed and then disgusted look.,’Whooo!’ yelled Steve, jumping around like a maniac. ‘Nice catch, kid,’ said Old Time, with a mixture of sarcasm and awe.”

The author doesn’t introduce abstraction while driving home his encounters. “Randy stared unbelieving at the ball now in his mitt,un-crossed his arms and took it in his throwing hand. He put the mitt on his left, his catching hand. Now he was ready to catch something. His face reflected excitement, confusion, and deep pleasure”, the story continues, “You weren’t even looking and it fell right into your mitt, you lucky dog,” said Steve, calming down a little. “Lucky Randy Buckley. Lucky Buckley. No - Lucky Buck. That’s it. Lucky Buck.” Old Time laughed. “Lucky Buck. Yeah, kid, that’s you all right.”

Following all of those post-modern works attempting to release rein to their fancies, Peterson’s work pulls together some extrodinary approaches, hardly blandly dressed.

Peterson’s soon to be released chap-book of poetry, “At the Point and Other Poems”, offers overlapping, dancing verse which allows a recurring image of the peaceful hovering over a city currently at war with itself. The works are immediately striking. In his, “Imagine the River”, the writer enjoys:

“In the violet darkness,
fireflies on the ditchweed.
Tree crickets scraping music
on blossoming waterpepper.
At the water's edge,
dusk is lush with sweetness.
Farther out, perhaps,
boats are drifting,
trimmed with lights and bells”

Where does the author go next? “What's up next? ”he smiles, “The one somewhat shocking thing I learned when I finished the first draft of “The Body in the Bookstore Sink”, was that I wasn't done at all. Oh no. What was up next was re-write, after my reader/editors went through it and marked it up, pointing out weak passages, self-indulgence, awkwardness, and the like.” Continuing,  “It was a little deflating, but they were right and it took many months of trying to fix all that before it was more or less finished - a book is never finished, is it? So - if I finally finish this first draft, and re-write it so that it is deemed worthy - what then? I really don't know - maybe a more serious novel, but I shouldn't even say. It's like trying to say what meal I'm going to have two years from now.”

I expect we’ll be following Peterson and his character for some time. We need ‘em. They tend to tell us who we are, or at least who those around us are. Some suck, some nourish and enrich. Some rattle and discredit myths of racial or national superiority. Yet when bundelled, as Peterson does, they demonstrate our common humanity in a politic of cultural property the author puts forth.

Billy Tokyo: The Shape of Things to Come/John Dempsey: Urban Nature

 - his amazing light and technicolor flight based on a theme of mysterious and memorable allusions
Currently at the Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 Cottage Hill Avenue
Elmhurst, Illinois 60126 thru August 25, 2012
jeffery mcnary
There’s a smart, sophisticated flavour to the sparkling Elmhurst Art Museum, a van der Rohe designed cultural center a short jaunt from the tag team wrestling arangements prevalent in nearby Chicago. And with the current exhibition of John Dempsey (aka Billy Tokyo), the vector of that sophistication has risen even more so. Full of delightful surprises, the show holds no freaky accidents. It steers far from deconsecrating the place.

“The Shape of Things to Come” explodes with color and laughter, inventing its very own reason for being. In case you didn’t know, Billy Tokyo is the alter ego and alias created by Dempsey in 2008. He’d been commissioned to produce illustrations at that time for Chicago’s Cubs baseball team. It’s said many of the pieces on that side of the boulevard are influenced by a form of Japanese Pop Art, with the painter embracing the landscape around him for inspiration.
“I was introduced to Billy’s work through a review by Jeriah Hildwine who was talking about the aftermath of the Art Loop Open show”, shared Aaron Ott, Curator of the Museun. “John’s painting “The Great American Landscape” won the top prize in that show. Hildwine spoke about his feelings about the painting and mentioned in his review the dual personalities of the artist (as Dempsey and Tokyo) and I decided that it was something I should investigate.”
It’s Dempsey’s first museum show, and he handles the tricky terrain with grace and panache, minus the works grasping the reins of the adventure too tightly. Oils of varying sizes dominate the outing. “I've experimented with almost every media imaginable, but I've always come back to oil paint”, he says. “ I want to create the perfect lines in my art, and oil flows off my brush with the consistency and color density I can control. Almost all my paintings are oil on canvas or linen.” He continues, “ Even though my artwork is composed of graffiti-like gestures I don't use any of the media used by the typical outdoor graffiti artist. I'm not a graffiti artist anyway so I guess this makes sense. I'm an oil painter using the visual language of graffiti writing to create my compositions.”
The exhibition is divided, Kantian-esque, with somewhat synthesized applications and structural clarity of Tokyo followed in an adjoining space by the flat yet deep pieces of Dempsey. It’s illuminating, recording scenes from the imagination…some in a more delicate vein…with greys and black exploding in un-predicted spasams of color. The exhibition begs the question how the artist can wrestle with the duality. “I have a large piece in my current show titled "Over the Underpass" that took me, off and on, about a year to complete because I kept changing it. I thought I was finished with it so many times, but when I would come in the studio the next day I would see that it was all wrong and white out whole sections. At one point it had a lot of color in it, which I eventually felt took the element of speed away from it,” adding “You just work on things until they feel right - until it looks like it's how it is suppose to be. There's no real way to define or explain it. But a piece can be overworked which can kill it. I guess that comes with experience - knowing when to say when.”

Dempsey, not at all trapped in a fluid set of influences there are those who have impacted his work. Albert Oehlen plays such a role. “I got a chance to talk to him last year about different ways to lay down lines. He can create lines that seem to change velocities - skillfully creating lines that look fast and slow and mixing bold with real subtle brushwork.” Another, he says is Shinque Smith. “She really introduced graffiti-like gestures into contemporary painting. I'm not talking characters or forms or writing like Basquiat and Keith Haring did, but the loops and swoops of the lines we see in graffiti writing and tagging. She's the only one, besides me, that I've seen that use this approach to create abstract art”. He continued, “She also takes street-found objects and places them in her compositions. She's not afraid to take chances. Her spirit really shows in her work - which looks feminine - which is great. I put one of her lines - a sort of line flair she makes - in my painting "Over the Underpass" to pay homage to her and her work.”

“We’ve been trying to lighten the mood at the Museum”, said Ott.” I mean, you know, sometimes art can get very serious, and there’s just an attitude to Tokyo’s work that makes me happy and makes me laugh. But that’s not to say it’s not serious either. His Las Meninas piece is out of control. That thing is really amazing and you kind of have to know a lot about art history and Foucault to really get all the nuances in that painting. And the nuances are hilarious. He winks at history and theory and painting and himself and childhood and wealth and privilege. It’s really a great work.”
When this writer sat down to describe the artist and his work i wrote ‘electrified’…then I began laughing aloud…it’s so more than that. You don’t peel the onion on this…you zen it…or it zens you…and you travel right through to the core and out the other side screaming, ‘hold it…hold it…damnit…talk to me’, and clearly the Curator experienced the similar. “I liked Tokyo’s style, in that I feel like it manages to retain an edge while still being largely approachable, relatively funny, and has a big heart. So I asked for a studio visit”, says Ott. “Studio visits can make or break shows. And his totally made it. He just had a ton of work and was working furiously on new stuff and had an energy that I found very compelling.” Going further, “… maybe it was the right place at the right time for me. I had just read Foucault’s intro to “The Order of Things”, which dissects “Las Meninas”, and the book was in my bag and then all of the sudden I was standing in front of this ridiculous contemporary cartoony investigation of it. The whole thing just felt right. So that’s when I said – ‘Just do whatever you want.’ You know? Like I felt like he had it all totally under control. So then he started doing the wood work, which is also really strong and which is getting a lot of attention, rightly so. But that is all brand new to his studio practice.”
I’ve remained in a giddy ballet with the artist’s work to date and eager to explore if there’s anything out there yet to leave us breathless. “I'm starting to create my two dimensional compositions into 3 dimensional sculptures. I'm cutting wood to look like my graffiti-style compositions and really want to get big, complex and tight with them. I want the viewer to get their eyes really tangled in them. I have a sculpture tilted "Wicker Park 2005", that is really the start of it. It hangs from the wall, but looks like it's flying out. I want to take that idea but expand it by fifty or so pieces that interconnect and go to the ground and come up at you. I like my work to get in peoples faces - and I want to do that physically with these new sculptures I'm working on.”

Ott holds,“ Tokyo’s pretty much at the top of his game and still ascending right now. It’s fun to watch.” With Dempsey promising, “For the most part my paintings have been very clean and crisp, but the new compositions I'm working on are more dense and textured with rougher graffiti-like lines and a more dangerous visual language. I'm adding flakes of charcoal into the oil paint to add a feeling of grit. I'm starting to make them a bit grungier. I want to get dirtier with them. I want to walk down that the dark alley.”

We have an artist involved with ideas here, and whether ordered or measured we would do well to follow his work and explore them as their central questions evolve.

FAVORITE POEM PROJECT HITS CHICAGO

(Chicago, IL) In the fine tradition of National Poetry Month, writers Keith Peterson and Jeffery McNary will host a, 'Favorite Poem Project' read on Friday, April 8th at 'Selected Works Books', 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

Participants are encourage to read their favorite published poem by a writer of their choice. The Project was intitiated by former Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky in

1997 to further an appreciation of poetry.

The event will begin at 6 PM and conclude at 9 PM.

(photo: robert pinsky with jeffery mcnary)

canticle

canticle… je vous ai voulu pour toujours
july, 2010
jeffery mcnary

arriving single-edged in all her forms...
amidst the swirling mist, un-veiled,
treasured and high minded...comes the rain-goddess,
with her wind blown hair... something from a fairy tale,
deliberate
and dressed for the occasion,
tipped sideward with invitations to view the world upside-down she smiled…
and waved…she behaved in that way....

ah, there you are…as a foreign film full of fiction and giggle…
there’s you,
enchanted,
repairing detachment with the giddy while draped in the elegance of your purposed simplicity… lingering long in scenes all of your own…there’s you…
…welcoming in the distance…

we’re collected works now …formed by believing, possibly defying…
we’re quick moments…messages startling and sudden…waded through…
we’re constructed histories with layers of edits...mediums carved from implication…
of passions and ambitions wailing…of stalled out anthems…
we both know paths. dicta and destinations,
should you care to notice…are more than meet the eye now

ah, there you are…amid the swish of painted, rustling silks with
your magic lamp.. your uncommon way…your roots grown deeper
than asked for from your traditional sources and rituals…
those grandly imperfect episodes of revealing, un-yielding, viewed
…with others eyes and subtle public magic…

i’ve seen those pilloried in past lives...faces on stamps. i saw a republic, with eyes missing. i believed in the wild and in spring, though not exactly. then i saw autumn
with a thousand faces at the door...i saw those who hated very much...those of whom
the poets sang and the ancients warned...then i saw you, with your warnings
and your own wide unblinking eyes.. ‘AAs’ as you said...shimmering in my desert...

i wanted to settle properly…brazenly…into casual tones…to wash your hair
with herbs…to wipe the moon with promise while experiencing the harmony
of all that without conjured things in patterns and alchemy…without
threads running between us. but mockingly you’ve kept a straight face,
…swearing off fantasy, and in the fullness of our brief days i dreamt your sigh…
……echoing…“envie de te toucher, tu es loin”… as i stepped from the shade and
……… righteously stepped back into circulation…now writing such things…

…there are no tenses today…no wrong answers…there’s just your rhapsody
…and little to explain, only to understand...and your way…your airy, ethereal way…
as fragile and gentle as a saffron metaphor
…as naked trees in a falling rain

i have left a chest of things there
…..linen and candles
……….things for the return
……………things and oils of earth tones and magus

listen for me…listen for my calling

ZG GALLERY SPRING GROUP SHOW

April 16 – May 22
jeffery mcnary
The ZG Gallery opened its powerful Spring Group Show with the works of thirteen artists, each laying out their individual imagery along side stylistic differences in a generalized dissociation. There is a delicate balance in such a vivid experience, with many of the works holding connections to the “natural”, the exhibitions curator, Meg Sheehy points out, “The show is seasonal, and serves as a boost and equal exposure. It’s a profile of the Gallery and demonstrates the kind of work we’ll be showing.” These are pieces to see, not just to look at.

Queried on her pieces, Anna Joelsdottir shared early on, “I understand that they have one wall and good breathing space which is tricky in a group show of many”. Joelsdottir’s work, “no one knew or will ever know”, mixed media on Mylar, reflects a softening adjective, ethereal which lingers on from her most recent exhibition at the gallery. “The transparency creates an added depth/space effect that is hard to do on canvas or paper”, she shares. “I started to use mylar for installation purposes, folded in 3d you wrote about my installation at Zg last summer”, reminding me of a previous review. The artist remains eager to explore how this would work, flat, as individual paintings. This is one such piece which has made her métier. “I also wanted to see if I could do small paintings that look like they are large or could be large.”

Ben Butler cast an enigmatic captivating slice of the show with an, ‘untitled’, ink with earl grey tea, presenting an organic feel. With his system the viewer comes upon small boxes with tiny X’s through them, establishing an overall unique design while producing somewhat of a meditative state with relaxed grace.

The viewer is casually launched in a different direction and toward a different style with Martina Nehrling’s bold, bright colors and their own language. “Often I begin a painting with an agenda of content and formal strategies in mind,” Nehrling says. “But sometimes I just start, acting on a whim. I was turned on by the vibrancy of acrylic colors and when I discovered an acrylic medium that created a texture and shine similar to the stand oil I most often combined with oil paint I was pretty much committed to continuing with acrylics, at least for a while,” she adds.

Her, “Keeping Faith”, acrylic on canvas, is a departure from her normal, typical brush strokes. There is controlled chaos in this work. That ‘language of color’ steps up, speaking loud and clear. The work is illuminating. The freshness of the brush stroke and sense of spontaneity on the surface is essential to the directness of this language. “I love the immediacy of painting”, Nehrling shares. “Probably most painters would admit to this on some. I use acrylic paint to be specific. I love the buttery texture and elemental odors of painting with oils but I switched from oils to acrylic paint to more expediently pour and combine different consistencies of paint.”
The art of Molly Briggs, Ben Butler, Amy Casey, Bill Frederick, Dan Gamble, Gregory Jacobsen, Mark Murphy, Martina Nehrling, and Jackie Tileston also hold even keel in the exhibition. As does the calming, “Still”, auto paint on Plexiglas, of Steve Hough.

Justin Henry Miller emerges more curio vs. ornament. These pieces develop, “out of conglomerating the leftovers or detritus”, Miller holds of his contributions to the show. “Like these byproducts, the vintage photos I collect have been forgotten or discarded. I seek to resurrect these commemorations and give them new life.” Miller also appears intrigued in changing the narratives in these photos with his addition of paint elements. Figures in these images have the potential to operate as armatures for stories that extend beyond their original context.

“My paintings on vintage photographs begin with a search for images that interest me in some way. I am drawn to personalities with intriguing poses, facial expressions, and attire”, he says. In his, "War Changes a Man", oil on photograph, the artist plays off the central figure's uniform and his relationship to his proud parents. “In my mind he could be a soldier who has returned from a war, now altered by the effects of that endeavor, but still loved by his family”, Miller adds. There are traces of Man Ray beneath the fold(s).

The show is more than an accumulation of the art of painters having visited upon the ZG in the past. There appears an innate desire in these works, a common effort and intelligent attitude to touch upon the now, the day-to-day. Group shows of this size hold the risk of being unforgiving. This exhibition sidesteps all of that.

MAUVAIS GARCONS

MAÇON de NOELLE - mauvais garçons Galerie de Thomas Robertello 9 avril-5 juin 2010 - jeffery mcnary Dans, les « mauvais garçons, » une exposition soloe de son travail, maçon de Noelle fournit une fin vers le haut, un regard aux notions « de la masculinité hysterique ». Les « mauvais garçons », elle écrit, « est au sujet de la représentation de la masculinité, ou du drag de `de la masculinité, et comment ce drag de `est ouvré par des vêtements, accessoires, ou dans l'esthétique du regard fixe cinématographique de `. ' » Mais l'exposition, actuellement à la galerie de Thomas Robertello, est environ, et fait, la manière davantage que cela. Ici l'artiste, au lieu de fournir les toiles de table propres artistiques, remet à zéro le secteur dinant entier avec une complexité critique et, prend la visionneuse sur un tour sauvage dans un monde de l'ultra-violence et des images terrifiantes souvent anesthésiées sur l'Evening News. Il cliquette les thèmes souvent vagues, d'utilisé d'un monde d'art développé accoutumé juste à l'embrouillement à travers, et roule, de mode synchronisée, par des événements et des communautés où vous ne voulez pas débarquer ou baiser en passant autour. On peut entendre le tir, juste au sujet de l'odeur la cordite. N'est aucune abstraction. Plutôt elle sonne de la trompette un paiement des droits artistiques et plonge profondément dans les pores de la poteau-modernité et de l'écoulement d'enveloppement d'un monde de plus en plus rugueux et dangereux accompagnant la période. « Je suis intéressé par l'idée du masculinity hysterique de `dans la référence à cette exposition, » des parts de maçon. « L'hysterique de mot étant dérivé de l'anatomie femelle mais est tourné sur sa tête comme comportement distinctement irrationnel des hommes et des garçons que dans la crainte de reconnaître leurs propres faiblesses cherchez à effacer des faiblesses de `par la violence et accessorizing. » Dans, le `rien beaucoup s'est produit aujourd'hui (pour Eric et Dylan) », 12pt. le coton a compté le X-point 32 x 40, l'artiste combine un travail croix-piqué, une image pixelated de Columbine haut School' ; vidéo surveillance de cafétéria de s prise pendant le massacre du 20 avril 1999. Son effort de cinq ans saisit l'image iconique représentant 1/30 d'une seconde de l'événement. Il est préparé comme « tissu ou évidence de deuil », et sert de taon à rouvrir de vieilles blessures. Il y a un doux, shadowiness au morceau. « J'ai commencé par le milieu du croix-point, et ai été dessiné au croix-point pour son tactility, la connaissance et le rapport avec le Pixel, » indique l'artiste. « La déformation de l'image une fois transformée en stitchery a semblé se rapporter bien à la qualité à basse résolution de la longueur de surveillance. » La continuation, « quant au sujet, Columbine s'est juste sentie exacte. Elle s'est sentie défaite, comme si elle a eu besoin de plus d'attention qu'elle a été eue les moyens, j'a dû la traiter d'une manière quelconque. » « Il y a une exploration de temps dans le travail. L'image iconique représente 1/30 d'une seconde de l'événement chez Columbine », elle continue. « Ce 1/30 d'une seconde est devenu quelque chose un genre beaucoup plus grand d'évidence. Chaque couleur de soie de broderie correspond à un Pixel sur mon écran d'ordinateur. Ce morceau est prévu pour rouvrir des blessures. La fois passée nous les avons fermées vers le haut que nous n'avons pas obtenu tout le poison dehors. J'essaye de découvrir quelque chose. Les meurtres de Columbine ont irrité la conscience publique pour demander pourquoi. Je ne pense pas qu'elle était assez. La plupart des personnes ont trouvé une réponse à cette question qui s'est insérée bien dans leur worldview et a alors cessé de demander. « Rien ne s'est beaucoup produit aujourd'hui » est prévu pour la faire irritant encore. » Un dilemme horrible, clairement. Avec, les « lettres d'amour », 39 mouchoirs brodés blancs, maçon revisite le mafia de manteau de fossé du `de Columbine par l'intermédiaire des écritures d'Eric Harris de membre. L'artiste pique soigneusement les mots et colère avec le fil noir, capturant la fureur et la crainte en termes comme, « aucun je ne suis pas fou. fou est juste un mot. à moi il n'a aucune signification. chacun est différent. mais la plupart d'entre vous des fuckheads dehors là dans la société, allant à vos travaux foutus journaliers et faisant vos choses shitty courantes journalières, je dis la baise vous et meurs. Si vous obteniez un problème avec mes pensées, venues dites moi et à mise à mort malade vous, parce que ......... le goddammit, les personnes mortes ne discutent pas ! ! Pour l'artiste, la surveillance implicite dans le travail, « rien s'est beaucoup produite aujourd'hui » est confrontée encore dedans, « partie de LAN », une instillation. Ces morceaux, l'artiste se reflète, « critique « le fetishization » de la surveillance esthétique dans la culture populaire. » La « partie de LAN », enregistrement vidéo de présents de l'armée américaine Force à bord des Irakiens d'un massacre d'hélicoptère d'Apache à travers par l'intermédiaire de la portée d'un modèle de menacer, fusil noir de tireur isolé de Remington M-700. Les écouteurs fournissent le bruit pour l'épisode, et par ceci, le téléspectateur devient participante. Combinés, ces morceaux, prises de maçon, « exposent le désir pour l'approbation publique par le drag'" hyper-masculin de `. « Je viens à mon travail d'un endroit de la crainte et de l'anéantissement. La sensation est proche de l'anéantissement sexuel ou de ne pas pouvoir trouver le bon mot, l'incapacité au temps d'arrêt ou comprendre la mort » le phénomène d'incliner-de-le-langue, » indique le maçon. « Plus spécifiquement je suis intéressé par la façon dont nous projetons nos craintes et désirs dans les objets culturels et alternativement comment ces technologies forment la construction de l'identité. » La « sonate », laser coupé sur le vélin, provient d'une vidéo d'Al-Qaeda décapitant. Ici l'artiste enlève le contenu visuel et réinterprète à la place l'horreur comme musique de feuille, et finalement le bruit. « Dans la sonate je remediated l'enregistrement vidéo des beheadings exécuté par Al-Qaeda pendant la dernière décennie. Les vidéos de décapitation qui sont prévues pour terroriser par la puissance de la vidéo ont été dépouillées de leur contenu visuel, » elle dit. « La sonate de mot signifie littéralement le sounded de `et est l'opposé de la cantate ou du `chanté. 'Cette transposition est apparentée à la traduction des images vidéo ou de la langue écrite dans l'objet de métier. Et met en référence thématique l'imagination de l'exécution masculine de la puissance dans la tentative de dominer par l'exposition explicite de la violence brutale. » Thomas Robertello, conservateur de l'exposition, et un flautist accompli est son propre droit, trouve les lancements et les rythmes du travail semblable à un raga indien du nord, avec l'energy mauvais de `à l'extrémité… dans elle est repos. L'exposition a des aspects de refroidissement, tout en uniformément contribuant à l'qui pique les actes agressifs esthétiques s'associaient souvent à la puissance masculine contre le doux, le fait main, le beau, le domestique. Elle des sooths, jure, précise et prêche. « Je suis principalement intéressé par la façon dont nous sommes manoeuvrés par non seulement le contenu du spectacle de médias mais par également le milieu des écrans d'ordinateur/télévision. En changeant la forme de contenu et du rapport spatial du spectateur avec le contenu », dit le maçon. « Je De-exprime les pensées de l'éditeur les images que j'emploie. Ceci ONU-qui empaquette fournit un espace alternatif pour la contemplation des événements spécifiques et a déstabilisé les médias tournent. » Quel prochain ? « J'ai actuellement commencé un nouveau corps de travail qui regarde le formalisme en tant que des moyens de comprendre l'esthétique représentative de la puissance. J'ai eu une pratique nomade pendant approximativement 5 années maintenant et ai récemment acquis un studio que j'attends avec intérêt une période d'expérimentation avec la forme et le milieu. » Bonne chance avec cela. Sûrement, si nous continuons à regarder des choses comme cet artiste la présente, nous sommes presque sûrs de s'ajuster d'une manière quelconque ou des autres.

justyna adamczyk : travaux recents

Justyna Adamczyk : Travaux récents

à la galerie de l'EC Par le magasin d'art de Chicago

le 25 janvier 2010 dans comporté,

revues Par : jeffery mcnary

« Je ne veux pas communiquer directement avec les pensées des personnes voyant mon art. Je voudrais fournir une exposition de route qui tient compte de la réflexion personnelle », notes Justyna Adamczyk. Son exposition courante, de nouvelles peintures à la galerie de l'EC est une rangée provocante vers cette ambition. « Dans mon travail, pendant beaucoup d'années, j'ai essayé beaucoup de médias, mais avec le temps je me suis rendu compte que je parle sincèrement dans les médias qui peint. La peinture me donne l'occasion de présenter ses observations sur ma réalité subjective. Les liés au travail avec les problèmes insignifiants mais inévitables de fatigue de vie quotidienne. » Théoriquement, au moins, elle tient cela dans un monde fortement structuré, là est le besoin de connaître la croissance spirituelle. La « peinture est ma valve, qui permet l'évasion et les transforme en images dociles. » Le « cannibale », acrylique sur la toile, comme dans ses autres morceaux, semble spontané, avec l'artiste étant là, pas simplement la copiant. Ici ses roses et orange sont staggering, comme si les cheveux d'une silhouette ont été embrasés. La toile de brun non traité et grisâtre remet la peinture plus d'à la visionneuse. C'est un nouveau romantisme. D'une façon déterminante, ses nuances et tache sur le tissu, le rose en pastel, les bruns, jaunes des tonalités variables, ont lu à haute voix du tissu, comme si après avoir été environ pour des âges. C'a pu être sang desséché. C'a pu être des gouttes cancéreuses. « J'ai été toujours attiré aux travaux des artistes qui se passent et leur vue subjective de punk », elle dit. On interroge, a l'artiste retourné à l'adolescence dedans, « gamme des saveurs », acrylique sur la toile. N'énonçant pas son inspiration directement, plutôt il joue avec la couleur, avec des formes, et parfois les brosses au sujet de la présence esthétique avec les figures épineuses, plues au moment par des rêves et des complexes Jungian sous forme d'expérience de laboratoire courent sauvage sur le travail. Il y a un genre spécial et différent d'authenticité dans cette expérience. Dans ces images le téléspectateur trouve des associations d'autonomie et de couleur, des visions et des insinuations. Certains semblent salis, et errent au loin, mais à peine dans le mondain. Là les cycles sont courts, mais dans là des récits de forme de brièveté. Adamczyk espionne Frida, marque Ryden, prise de bec de Matthew, et Kim Sooja en tant qu'influences sur elle travail. « Ce sont des caractères dont j'ai appris beaucoup. Ils sont complètement différents, dans les vues de la réalité », elle dit. « En plus de ceci elles diffèrent personnellement et intimement. Une question importante pour moi est l'impact sur la visionneuse. Je recherche la langue qui permet au téléspectateur de sentir mon idée. » Il est difficile de trouver l'excès dans les peintures. Elles sont presque involontaires. La provocation d'Adamczyk est au coeur de l'exhibitionnisme artistique. « N'importe quelle idée semble être parfaite quand je l'ai obtenue dans mon esprit ou sur un croquis », elle dit, « mais la bataille commence à l'heure du transfert… le mouvement à la vraie image. J'essaye d'être aussi étroitement que possible à ce qui résulte de la première pensée ou impression. » Que, elle maintient, est l'impulsion à la création de l'image. Avec elle, des travaux sont créés et conduits par une inspiration très personnelle. Ils sont des offres… à nous… et au quel reste dans chacun de nous individuellement. Ceci devrait être apprécié. Les travaux de l'artiste a été exhibés dans une foule de lieu de rendez-vous comprenant Biennale de la peinture « Bielska Jesien 2009, Pologne ; 9 concours Gepperta, BWA Awangarda Wrocław, Pologne ; Peintres I-XII, galerie de Bestregarts - Francfort sur Main, Allemagne de polisch de Joung ; 30 Premio Internacional de Pintura De Caja De Estrémadure ; Plus ou moins, Musemu DA Ciencia e DA Industria - Porto, Portugal et Aula de Cultura De Plasencia. Elle a reçu son AMF la de l'académie des beaux-arts en Pologne, Wroclaw en 2007. C'est sa première exposition des États-Unis. Justyna Adamczyk : Les travaux récents seront sur l'affichage à la galerie de l'EC du 15 janvier au 13 février. La galerie de l'EC est située à la rue Chicago, IL 60607 d'Aberdeen du nord 215.