Two new exhibits have come to the walls of University of Puget Sound’s Kittredge Gallery. The main gallery space is devoted to “Process Drawings: Recent Works by Makoto Fujimura.” This show consists of large, thick sheets of paper that are bolted to the walls. Fujimura, an artist, writer and orator with an international following, created these works as part of a performance collaboration with percussionist Susie Ibarra. While Ibarra sat at her drum kit and improvised spacey percussion effects, Fujimura worked with his subtle and delicate pigments upon the paper surface. Glittering gold mingles with blues and greens as Fujimura goes slow motion. Think of Jackson Pollack on powerful muscle relaxers.
The resulting, watery images are more subtle than the color field paintings of Mark Rothko. They seem a little too subtle to be very interesting to someone who is not in a state of meditation or under the influence of psychotropic substances. They would, however, make good wall coverings upon which other paintings could be hung.
A film called “Golden Sea” was made to document the process of Fujimura’s delicate and subtle work. The process is far more interesting than the end result.
Kittredge’s small gallery space houses a show called “Between Chance and Control.” Three recent UPS graduates - Haley Andres, Abbie Baldwin and Kristan Shuford - went to Leipzig, Germany as part of a two-month residency at Halle 14, an old cotton mill converted into a cultural center housing restaurants, studios and art galleries. During their residency, the three artists were able to work freely on individual pursuits.
Fascinated by fragile and ephemeral insect wings found on the window sills, Baldwin did a series of enlarged, steel reproductions of the wings in which the intricate structure of the wings of various insects is examined.
Andres, on the other hand, did a variety of fluid paintings and drawings (somewhat akin to the watery “drawings” of Fujimura out in the main space). An experimental sculpture made with stalks of grass and zigzags of found metal is especially interesting. Andres also did a trio of hand-bound sketchbooks with her watery paintings on the canvas covers.
Shuford’s interest in dance and movement is said to have inspired her muted, purple, yellow and cream colored installation. A boxy, sculptural form is suspended above a painted canvas on the floor. A similar painting hangs on the wall behind the suspended contraption. It is difficult to discern just how the movement of the human body inspired the mini-installation that seems more like a static abstraction in three dimensions.
“Beyond Chance and Control” was curated by Luc Sokolsky who observed all of the work of the three UPS graduates and developed ideas for an exhibition.
Both exhibits run through April 11. For further information visit http://pugetsound.edu/Kittredge.