Welcome Back show

Mason Gross faculty and 2nd year graduate students have a lot to offer in this year's Welcome Back show. I spent quite a bit of time (on separate occasions) in each of the gallery rooms. My first impression upon seeing the exhibition differs from my impression after having time to truly spend with the artwork. That my opinion changed after repeated visits shows me how important it is to be with the art for a time, rather than just glaze over it. I also found myself appreciating the exhibition more after hearing about the effort and consideration that went into designing the layout.

We were told to blog about aspects of the show that worked together or didn't; things we liked or hated. I honestly can't say that I hated anything- yet there were definitely areas of the gallery in which I tended to linger longer. Something about Diane Neumaier's photograph is really intriguing to me. (Not a surprise that I am choosing to talk about a photograph- I don't usually feel as comfortable critiquing mediums which I am not as familiar with.) Diane's "Untitled" is labeled as an ink jet photograph, which tells me that it is digitally printed. At first glance it doesn't look like any recognizable genre of photography at all. A gray background is accented by two cut-outs of blue and yellow and a thin sliver of a light glare. The different colors of the two shapes confuses the figure-ground relationship of the image. If they were the same colors, I would be able to see them as both the background of the image and the foreground. Instead, I am forced to accept that the gray matte color is containing the two ambiguous shapes (one of whose edges are more hand-cut than the other). This photograph reminds me of James Turrell- a light artist who has held my attention since seeing one of his exhibition's last year. In the past he has created enclosed rooms with ceilings that open to the sky. "Skyspaces".

These spaces leave a small shape of sky to be seen and contemplated, which is how I think of Diane's blue and yellow cut-outs. Through contemplation my perception changes how I view the image & I start questioning my eyes' discretion.

I think it was a good decision to pair this photograph next to a painting by Catherine Murphy called "Her Bedroom Wall". Larger in size, this is a painting of photographs of faces pinned to a wall. The title makes me think that the wall belongs to someone close to Catherine. The painting is divided by four corners where each of the picturese of faces are. They are all smiling. A couple of them have ripped edges as thouh they were torn in two or out of a magazine. The faces are cut off at the edges of the painting, which distorts the smiling faces in a strange way. The people in these photographs have a certain hostile edge to them in their piercing eyes and the jagged glares of light hitting their fake skin. The girl in the bottom right corner looks like she is actually engulfed in flames. Unlike Diane's piece which is containted within the borders of the photograph, Catherines painting emphasizes cropping. The placement of these two pieces next to each other causes me to wonder about the artists' intents compositionally. The two are united because both compositions are so simple (to the point of uneasiness) and intentional, though in regards to content they are drastically different.