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Samuel
S. Fleisher Art Memorial reviewed by
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Given that Philadelphia has far too few juried shows and too many artists for galleries to accommodate, I'm not sure why curators don't devise a more inclusive way of showing work at nonprofit spaces. Although the Fleisher Challenge -- by showing three artists at a time -- addresses this to a degree, it suffers from a slightly different malaise. They hold juried exhibitions regularly and receive an overwhelming response, much like the popular Art on Paper show at Arcadia, but they are a bit routine and seem to serve as an overflow for recent MFA grads. And though the shows are juried, they appear as curated or themed shows since they generally include installation works that are tied together in some way. It occurs to me since the whole submission process is centered around slides -- there is no proposal or resume included with the application -- that this may be part of the problem, that there is no "professional" agenda. This may stem from the fact that the Fleisher is also a school and the exhibitions have to tally with the educational ethos. This is not the case at Arcadia, where the shows are always of a professional standard. Certainly, the Fleisher Challenge gives local artists something to aim at in the way of a high profile show and, I confess, I am not immune. Having said this, I'm glad the recent show is a surprise. It not only gels thematically but the exhibition is more professionally installed. The three artists were well chosen and seem to speak to one another. The exhibition space itself is somewhat tidier and is not interfering with the work as it sometimes does. Unfortunately, installation shows at Fleisher suffer because the walls and floors never quite achieve "white box" blankness, nor are they rough enough to be completely alternative to accommodate more experimental approaches. However, James Johnson's work is remarkable and luckily has nearly nothing at all to do with the room it enlivens. His tiny photograph/constructions are seen through peepholes and are formally very successful. Ingeniously set in mirrors and only visible at certain angles, seeing these takes some audience participation, and in some cases, a step stool. I'm not sure if the mirrors (reflecting the viewer) are all that key because once one can see the images "inside," they function on their own and the viewer is transported to another "room" entirely. This isn't so much voyeuristic as a sort of mental travel into another space. The sense of melancholy displacement is clear enough, but the essential reaction seems to deal with the formal play and the viewer's involvement in this well constructed illusion. Doina Adam's installation is a more poetic piece and her installation offsets the other artists in the show. The viewer senses a more mature sense of dark melancholy with no transporting necessary. Where does the mood come from? Hard to tell. Although there is the suggested landscape with fabricated trees and sewn outlines of trees on fabric, the intent is to regard inner territory. I'm not sure about the use of mirrors beneath the trees. Although Adam has used the mirrors before in outdoor works, here on the floor they seem somehow less sculptural and more commodity, which interferes with the result. And here, the presence of the room does detract somewhat. Perhaps the solution could have been lighting or creating a more complete transformation of the space. Tom Vance's work is, in contrast, cheerful and user-friendly. In not attempting to evoke any great "feeling" he is free to make an earnest and literal attempt at merging his painterly aesthetic into a happy exercise in 3-D. The multiple small box shapes grow out from the wall in unison and form a miniature wrap-around cityscape. This type of low-tech installation suits the casualness of the walk-through room and the results are effective. One imagines the next step to be taken by Mr. Vance is adding a cardboard train that runs through the piece or flying bits of card hung from the ceiling. In any case, the work engages physically with the room and that is my definition of a good site-specific installation. ©
2005 James Rosenthal and InLiquid.com;
image copyright © James
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