Pump Up the Volume! But not too loud...

A couple weeks ago I visited the Else Gallery to look at the exhibit, Pump Up the Volume! by Jane Dickson and Joe Lewis. This exhibition goes from January 27-February 26, 2016 and the reception was on opening day from 5-7pm. Shortly following the reception on the same night was the Artists' Talk, which went from 7:30-8:30 pm. The overall reason for the artworks was for the artists to celebrate the global rise of hip hop from its earliest movements they had witnessed in the South Bronx. The only wording placed on the walls was the title of the exhibition itself that covered a large portion it next to the door, in a graffiti font.

Most of the works were done in oil on different materials, such as paper, yupo, linen, and canvas. A great majority of the works were portraits of either 1, 2, or 3 people at a time. These pieces were all up against the wall except for a couple: one piece, which was a shoe designed as a lamp, was on a table against the corner. Behind the show were prints on polyester that told a story of the choices you make in life and how you live it will reflect on where you will end up in the future. The second piece was placed in the center of the room; it was simply a horizontal, open book that read "THE N WORD" in a large, black font.
Additionally, there were two pairs of gold record discs hanging from the ceiling. To me, I read this to be that music was, and still is, a heavy influence in the hip hop culture, and the artists who can preserve the music will keep it "golden". To add to this, hip hop music was playing in the room, which went well with the overall atmosphere.

A great strength that I was able to see in this exhibit was that it totally correlates with February being Black History Month, so the timing for it was perfect. I felt that we can grasp a sense of hip hop form the area, and in a way, I can tell that the journey for the movement was definitely a hard and challenge-filled one, especially with the violence and racism, but in the end, it was worth the struggle.

Title 

Shoe Lamp

A lot of portraits

Music is "golden"

Another Post for Another Place--2.10.16

February 5 was the last day for the Witt Gallery's exhibition for Another Place by Aynsley Wille. Her exhibition lasted from February 1-5, 2016, while her reception was on the 4th from 5-8 pm. All of the pieces there were some sort of metalwork ranging from medium to large on scale and and had either cut out holes that seemed to represent the shape of leaves or a geometric pattern on them. The ones with the leaf pattern were more of sheet metal and those with the geometric pattern were cage-like.

According to the Facebook event, the story behind Another Place was that in the grand scheme of things, we only exist for tiny moment of it, a fraction of the overall. We spend a large portion of it trapped between what if and when. Aynsley's work of eroded metal explores the reality of human consciousness, and our thoughts that we bloom from where we are rooted and grow within ourselves. Lastly, these forms travel the human process of being and progression highlighting the journey.

The room of the installation was very spacious and the lighting was somewhat dim. Three of the works were on pedestals in the entry room, and in the main room, one large, vertical piece stood by itself on the ground. The rest were hung on the walls. The only writing in the exhibit was "Another Place" in the entry room.

The strengths of the exhibit were that the pieces were organized in a way that the works around it somewhat matched in design and structure, so placement was not random. Additionally, the work was consistent; the "leaf" patterns were evident on some of them while others had a cubic/hexagonal-like pattern in it. I read these two "themes" as us humans being both organic and structured, and as we grow, we lean more towards on one of the sides; for organic, we focus on what is more natural and free formed, whereas structurally we focus on man made and technological.
One geometric piece that was hanging on the wall reminded me of a cage that was trying to hold something in, but its "prisoner" escaped. This could possibly connect to Aynsley's exploration of human consciousness, where our thoughts or emotions we bottle up inside cannot be contained forever and need some sort of escape into the world. before it tears us up inside.

The weakness of the exhibit was that for me, it was a little too spacious. Even though there was more room to walk around, it felt more emptier  in the main room, because everything was hung on the wall, except for the vertical piece. There was one piece that seemed to be the indifferent one: it was thick wires with leaf-shaped sheets of metal connected them, so to me, it looked like a tree branch. This was a pair, and both of them hung side by side on the same wall.
However, this piece could represent that at some points in our existence, we start to question ourselves, and sometimes we feel like the odd one from the normalities of life, and ask ourselves why are we different form other people. Eventually, we learn to accept our diversity and embrace our unique individuality.

Overall, despite the whole exhibit having all the pieces in rustic metal, it got me thinking about the colorful life we are living now. In a way, Another Place can represent that even in the dullness or mundane of some aspects in our lives, we can still break free and grow to be whoever we want to become.

The indifferent piece

Notice the geometric patterns

The "broken cage"

Few of the many pieces with the leaf pattern