past exhibition
Drawing on the Psyche
September.7.2012
Drawing on the Psyche
Opening Reception: September 7, 7-10 pm
Exhibition dates: Sept 7th – 26th
Nicole Antebi
Jani Benjamins
Julia Haft-Candell
Dan Hockenson
Jay Lizo
Colin Roberts
Tyler Waxman
This exhibition examines the various manifestations of artists using drawing in relation to the human psyche. Drawing has a rich history in relation to the unconscious. Drawing experiments such as the Exquisite Corpse and Automatic Drawing are famous examples of that relationship. Unlike past processes of games and chance, this exhibition uses imagist representations of the unconscious, much like the Imagist poets in the early 20th century. The artists in this show, in varying degrees, use imagery as a possible metaphor in revealing their thoughts on the human condition.
Nicole Antebi reflects the unconscious iIn her short animated essay, "Uisce Beatha," Nicole Antebi suggests that William Mullholand, chief water poacher of the LADWP until 1928 may in fact be "UISCE," the half man, half horse Irish trickster who searches for unsuspecting riders to drown in inland bodies of water. Jani Benjamins chooses pages from a magazine then painstainkly starts erasing imagery to reveal alternative meaing. Julia Haft-Candell creates quirky anthropomorphic sculptures using ceramic, silk and wire. Jay Lizo makes sumi ink drawings of vinyl records with images of psychiatric patients drawn in the grooves. Dan Hockenson mines dictionaries in search of orthographic commonalities, moments of collective legibility, and realizes their forms in pourstone. Colin Robert’s meticulous graphite drawings of prosthetic legs reflect an unconscious of poetic abjectness. Finally, Tyler Waxman, which closely resembles Automatic Writing, obsessively fills his canvas or paper with cellualr marks to form biomorphic forms.
The Imagist poets found beauty using precise language in describing everyday objects. The poems would refelct a trace of human psyche, whether is was from a Locust tree (William Carlos William) or a tortoise ( D.H. Lawrence). These artists also share that precision of object, mark, and image making that together share a collective unconsciouness.
“The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.”
— Ezra Pound
Jay Lizo
