A R T I N S I G H T

paper rock scissors

There is a direct relationship between artists' hands and minds that becomes a visual form of non-verbal communication between thought and action. An artist's coordination, between seeing and the gestures of creating, is often a balancing act that involves physical motion as much as thoughtful contemplation. Artists naturally experiment and play with materials and ideas before actually creating the finished work. Generally this is a complex process that includes an infinite variety of choices and materials. How artists select their format and medium can often be a random choice based on a gut reaction that may eventually lead to startling revelations about the concept of the work.

The artists in Paper Rock Scissors scrutinize the ordinary elements of our lives: family, gender, race, identity and language. Their thoughts span social issues regarding loss of culture and more intimate investigations about our domestic lives and the loss of family and tradition. Many of these artists collect remnants, the detritus of every-day-life. These objects and images are like relics that show the accumulated moments spent: first in gathering, preserving, and contemplating these materials, then in the time spent in the studio incorporating these materials into the art.

Many of these artists investigate this passing of time through the process of aging and decay, or by their actions. There is a sense of our own mortality inherent in making art that will last longer than our selves; many of the pieces address these issues by incorporating fleeting images, fragile papers, rust, and time-based performances or projects. Often this work has the power to induce strong emotions such as nostalgia, or trigger memories similar to the way certain smells recover a sense of place. Memories, like many ideas, are translucent and layered, often shifting out of focus or changing perspective as we grow.

Making art is often a series of gestures, rituals, and random acts leading to a final object that requires some further contemplation. This process can be both frustrating and fascinating, like starting out on a road trip with no itinerary. The work is certainly influenced by state of mind, physical well-being and countless other variables that all contribute to the finished piece. The studio becomes a laboratory of sorts where artists transmute these raw materials into a physical representation of one's ideas. In this respect, the process is similar to the search for the proverbial philosopher's stone.

Cheryl Coon , Curator

Artists:

Julia Babiarz

Lynn Beldner

Mardi Burnham

Kirsten Cole

Pamela Cooper

Christel Dillbohner

Nicholas Fedak II

Christine Heinitz

Diane Jacobs

Christina La Sala

Gretchen Mentzer

Virginia Ray

Shawn Smith

Jason Tannen

Art Papers Magazine

Carol Ladewig

November / December 2000

pp.53-54

The works in Paper Rock Scissors (San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, May 3 – June 10), an exhibition curated by Cheryl Coon, a former writer for this publication, provided an opportunity to examine the work of artists who develop their thoughts and perceptions in a variety of media to create visual forms for non-verbal communications. The works in the show are, in Coon’s words, “…like relics that show the accumulated moments spent: first in gathering preserving, and contemplating these materials, then in the time spent in the studio incorporating the materials into art.” In contrast to the collecting of artist to create work, curators create temporary collections to be encountered in a particular space and time. The collection then disperses and returns to the studio or to another collection. The curator/collector’s sensibility in gathering and displaying works by various artists adds a new dimension of meaning to the works as they visually interact.

Coon has drawn from 14 artists working in a variety of materials: video, paint, sculpture, assemblage, woven paper, printing, and photography. There is a sense of fragility and mortality here which focuses on the commonplace elements of our lives. There is a delicate sense of detail and color in the works presented; the overall palettes in the exhibit, sepia, muted blacks and whites, occasional touches of red and blue, evoked and contributed to the quality of quiet memory and reflection. These artists used materials, objects and text taken from everyday – photographs, motorcycle parts, wax, paper, spoons, and a cup – and transformed and combined them to form new objects which are both surprising and thoughtful examinations of the ordinary elements of our lives: family, gender, race and identity and language.

Virginia Ray’s Stone Necklace is in many ways emblematic of the show, composed using found stones and ordinary fishing line. Each stone is tied simply and elegantly, all hanging at the same level, it is a quiet piece which is surprising, beautiful and visually arresting. The passage of time during which this piece was composed was recorded by exposing the stones to the sun on paper which left behind images of the stones.

Jason Tannen’s work is on a CD-ROM, accessed through a computer located in the gallery. The project has three segments, Scissors Paper Rock, and each segment has three components, a narrative text, photographic portfolio and video. Scissors is inspired by film noir, tapping into the darker side of human nature. The world of dissolute streets, all-night diners and empty telephone booths populate this section. Paper refers to records and documents and is an impressionistic view of family history and immigration. Rock describes the geography and substance of Fort Point, a Civil War-era military fort in San Francisco. This work is an interesting paradox and contrast to the pieces in the show in that is has transformed the commonplace materials of scissors, rock and paper into electrical impulses rather than an actual physical object.

The work in this show also covers a wide range of materials and processes from traditional to new media. The thread of memory runs through each of these artists’ works. In assembling this ephemeral collection, Coon has provided us with the works of artists that are engaged in a thoughtful and thought-provoking process, a skilled exploration of materials, the process of making and thinking thus elaborating on fundamental aspects of our lives.