A Stroll through the Galleries

Whenever I need a creative burst to shake up my work routine, I take a stroll through one of the art galleries on our campuses.

“Eco Byway,” a regional juried exhibit, features works with an ecological perspective by artists who live or work within 10 miles of the seven-state Interstate-94 corridor. Showing through Sept. 10 in galleries at the Benedicta Arts Center of the College of Saint Benedict and the Saint John’s Art Center, the exhibit includes a range of expression that will delight, challenge, inspire and/or alarm the viewer.

Because my office is located on the SJU campus, I have had the convenience to visit the SJU exhibit several times. I have seen the exhibit at CSB once and plan to continue visiting both exhibits throughout the summer.

Here are my reflections on some of the works at SJU that caught my fancy. I will offer views about the CSB exhibit in my next blog.

In “Beach from Garbage School,” artist Melissa Stang has drawn images of aquatic life on an assortment of plastic debris. The ordinary plastic forks, bottle caps, bags and bottles found in most U.S. households are strewn into a clutter that conveys from the point of view of the fish the end result of our throw-away society.

With contrasting colors, textures and shapes, Heath Matysek-Snyder’s “Silva” offers an appealing bench from which to ponder the exhibits. Reclaimed walnut frames three boxed sets of bamboo stems, standing upright and sheared flush. It’s a splendid combination of form, function and beauty that also inspires contemplation about the materials we choose.

Richard Bresnahan has three pieces from the Johanna kiln. My favorite, a footed platter, resembles a split log. What captures my imagination is the swirl of colors: rich rust, gold, indigo and shimmery silver wisps.

Jason Lanka asks the viewer to consider the line that divides our culture and the land we inhabit, in his mixed-media installation “Reach.” If he intended to scare the viewer, he succeeded. An audio buzzes without ceasing. The sounds grate on the ear, with a harsh mechanical, metallic effect, and they accompany a video that casts an image of vast expanse. Along the horizon, a ribbon of bare trees slashes across a barren landscape of snow-covered flat land and an overcast white sky. Very slowly, a monstrous creature emerges from the horizon and approaches the viewer. He appears both ghostly and ghastly, with Freddy Krueger-like claws dragging the ground. The artist asks the viewer to consider “how we view our relationship with the natural world,” but he sets an ominous tone for that consideration.

Works by Kenneth Steinbach drew my most extreme reactions, from favorite to least favorite. Two wall texts created from buckthorn branches did not intrigue me, although one of them received the audience choice award. Two other works keep me coming back.

In “Memoria Animus: Rainy Lake Series,” the artist uses scrimshaw to create drawings on used elephant ivory piano keys. The drawings depict topographical maps, based on the artist’s memory of wilderness areas he has visited. This piece has layer upon layer of meaning: the prior life of the elephant; the music the instrument once made; the artist’s memory; the loss of wilderness over time. Some of the ivory keys are damaged, like our wilderness and also like our own fragmented memories.

In “Taj,” the artist has applied a geometric pattern from the Taj Mahal onto a shed moose antler from the north woods. Seeking to “impose a rigid mathematical order over the horn’s contours,” Steinbach asks us to “question how our systems of belief … intersect with the natural world.” The effect is striking. Here we have an antler, formerly so useful during the rutting season, transformed by repetitious design into an object of adoration and meditation. It reminds me of animated imagery I have seen used to explain Einstein’s space/time continuum.

I would love to hear from readers about their reactions to the exhibits. Since the artists hope to provoke a conversation about their ideas, I invite readers to visit the exhibit and join me in the conversation.