Window Dressing 2018
Jackie Bell Johnson
STARBURST
Jan 29 – Feb 2, 2018
Jackie Bell Johnson’s installation, Starburst, will create a literal burst of light
and color within the vitrine space of the display gallery. The floating abstract pattern
will be made of woven fabric – specifically cheesecloth, dyed shades of red, coral,
orange, and red-lit to cast shadows and illuminate the color of the material. The
material is thin, and when lit, it will look like it glows. Cut into long, thin strips,
the fabric will be attached to the corner wall and then will be stretched out to the
far ends of the space. The result will be a delicate, intricate pattern in cast shadows
on the interior wall, mingling with the illuminated fabric.
Dakota Noot
MEAT MARKET
Feb 5 – Feb 9, 2018
Noot will create an installation playing off of traditional window displays, featuring
drawings turned into standing cutouts and hanging pieces. The installation, entitled
Meat Market, will link masculinity and the body to the buying/selling, hunting, and
eating of meat. Men will be morphed into animal-human hybrids frolicking and eating
one another. Rendered in the style of children's coloring books, the drawings will
be playful despite depicting horrific scenes of semi-cannibalism. By having animalistic
men interacting together, the installation will play into
contemporary themes of identity, sexual orientation (without didactic explicitness),
and objectification. The artist will specifically draw from his rural background combined
in unexpected ways with his self-identification as a gay male artist.
Diane Williams
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES
Feb 12 – Feb 16, 2018
Diane Williams’ installation, Beautiful Creatures, will mimic the stereotypical presentation
of commercial storefront displays, but with a surreal twist. The featured objects
on display will be pulled from a previous project entitled Monsters and Aliens, which
involved the creation of abstract masks, monstrous (self-)portraits, made out of shredded
paintings and other discarded materials. The masks will be placed on mannequins and
custom-made stands, combined with shredded acrylic paintings scattered on the floor
and cut-up gel rolls hanging from the
ceiling. These materials are semi-translucent, diffusing light in a pleasant aesthetic
amalgamation, and obscuring the masked female object, subverting the way we are conditioned
to see the unfamiliar as only-ever the frightening ‘Other’ - the outsider, the monster,
the alien – replaced instead by fascinating, beautiful creatures.
Paula Goldman
BLUSTER
Feb 26 – Mar 2, 2018
Paul Goldman’s installation, Bluster, will reference the overwhelming onslaught of
current events, while attempting to provide some partial relief by literally ‘blowing
the news away.’ On the far left side of the vitrine will be a very large photo of
a woman’s face in profile, posed as if she were blowing out candles. Spread across
the length of the interior wall will be full-page spreads pulled from current news
publications. Brightly colored streamers will be suspended from the ceiling throughout
the vitrine and a small fan will be positioned in the left end of the
space, aimed at the streamers and blowing in the same direction as the subject in
the photograph, creating the illusion that the giant head is sharply exhaling. The
wrap-around area of the vitrine will be filled with crumpled newspapers, the accumulated
and littered remains of previous attempts to blow away the trauma caused by contemporary
media coverage of current events.
Henderson Blumer and Suzanne Zoe
A COMEDY, IN PARTS
Mar 5 – Mar 9, 2018
For Henderson Blumer and Suzanne Zoe’s joint project, A Comedy, in Parts, the installation
will play with the idea of "window dressing" as a façade meant to bring you in, a
seduction, a mirage, a setting of the stage. Indeed, a proscenium stage often functions
similarly to a window display (both architecturally and formally). The artists’ will
explicitly take advantage of the fact that the site can be viewed from both very far
away and incredibly close up, creating a stage set that changes drastically depending
on the viewing angle. In contrast to the experience of a
traditional window dressing, the closer the viewer gets to this installation, the
more confused they will become. Through theatrical optical illusion, changes in scale,
lighting, and other techniques, the artists will create a set piece that invites closer
inspection, but refuses to fully satisfy. Where the scene may look lush and inviting
from afar, up close it will become oddly flat. A forest will reveal itself to be a
painted mirror. Miniatures and dummies will be placed next to life-sized actors. The
set will be activated by one performance, to take place during the opening.
But for the duration of the installation, the structure itself will provide multiple
viewing experiences. Rather than merely tantalize the viewers like the windows on
5th Avenue, this project will put impossible, incongruous demands on the brain. And
yet one will not be able to look away.
The installation will play with themes of real vs. fake, as well as the tension that arises from trying to reconcile multiple, simultaneous realities. Visual references throughout the installation will include Calder's Circus, movies such as Dogville and Synecdoche New York, and dioramas at The Natural History Museum.
John Waiblinger and Sean Yang
JOURNEY
Mar 19 – Mar 23, 2018
The installation, Journey, created jointly by John Waiblinger and Sean Yang, proposes
to narrate and navigate the process of ‘coming-out’ that both artists have experienced
personally, focusing on the desire for tender connections between two men as well
as the journey toward, and away from, the self-actualization of a fully-realized sexual
identity. The first element of the installation will be a headless and armless male
mannequin, unable to embrace his true self (and, therefore, anyone else), surrounded
by a low, semi-broken cinderblock barrier representing the space of "blockage/closet/suppression"
Around the corner from the mannequin will be a sculpture of an "exploding head" of
tangled thoughts and emotions extended via red elastic bands to all of the other elements
in the installation, including to five hanging images printed on gauzy silk, representing
idealized types of tender embrace/love/connection between men. The final component,
a golden hued, life-sized bust of the artist Sean Yang on a pedestal, wrapped in a
silk printed image, represents the figure of the self-actualized ‘out’ gay man, however,
a red band still connects the pedestal to the exploding head, informing the viewer
that this is not a final destination or one-time stop, but rather a continuous circle
and a journey that must be traveled repeatedly.
Cat Chiu Phillips
REMIX
Mar 26 – Mar 30, 2018
Cat Chiu Phillips’ installation, Remix, entirely created from discarded audio and
visual products, will be a playful take in handling the inevitability of technology.
VHS tapes, cassette tapes, slide projectors, and other modes of technology have quickly
become outdated items; casted off and found in scrap piles or second hand stores.
Remix is a project that transforms these obsolete materials into a playful and imaginative
abstract work, but offers a perspective of its foreseeable futile existence. It is
an up-cycled project that juxtaposes the hand-made to the machine-made and transforms
junk into an aesthetic item. It initiates a dialogue regarding abundance, electronic
waste, and frivolity in the aftermath of advanced technology. All items will be deconstructed
then transformed to mimic organic forms, composed to inhabit the window as living
entities. Traditional handicraft methods such as crocheting and weaving will be utilized
to capture the seemingly freeform movement of the synthetic material.
Christy Roberts Berkowitz
ELEMENTAL PRINCIPALS
Apr 2 – Apr 6, 2018
Inspired by the intersection of didactic stained glass windows and the foundations
of design education, Christy Roberts Berkowitz’s installation, Elemental Principles,
uses the elements and principles of design to ask questions about the nature of community.
Art and design classes at Cerritos College, will engage with the blank, but colorfully
lit back walls, to create images that attempt to answer a series of provocative questions
such as: “What is the shape of the future? Who draws the line? How do you balance
the sky? How does community move?” The windows of the display gallery will be covered
with translucent color panels. Each window panel will ask a question that integrates
the elements and principles of design with critical thinking questions about the nature
of community. The questions function as a prompt to create images that attempt to
answer these questions and as the week progresses, students can place their own work
on the blank wall space behind each colorful panel. The work functions collaboratively
because not only are the students challenged with responding to the prompt, but they
are also challenged with responding to the color of the window and the lighting.
Elizabeth Tinglof
A THIN THREAD TO BALANCE
Apr 9 – Apr 13, 2018
Elizabeth Tinglof’s installation, A Thin Thread to Balance, will address the process
of grief through conversations around gender, exposure, and symbolic penance. The
primary sculpture within the installation will be an abstracted human torso made of
resin and covered in areas with silver leaf, giving a contrast through the materials
of the precious and the toxic, attached to a traditional dressmaking mannequin stand
surrounded by a wire “cage crinoline.” The steel hoop-style petticoat made of wire
has been part of the Western-world’s fashion-profile for
women since the 1850s and continues to be used in contemporary designs, including
wedding and ball gowns. By displaying such an iconic fashion element for women, directly
connected to the raw and disturbing torso, the observer will both be drawn in for
a closer look while also being equally repelled. In addition to the main sculptural
piece, an intricate, twisted wire element will emanate from the back of the torso,
stretching from one end of the space to the other, climbing up the walls to the ceiling
creating a vine-like quality. While the wire element will
be intrusive to the space, there will also be a performative aspect to this element,
where the artist will continue to build up the wire vines; twisting, shaping and allowing
them to grow throughout the week of the exhibition, illustrating the never-ending
process of grief itself. The expansive wire vine symbolizes the destructive nature
of the “wild vine,” while also showing growth though the performative penitent act
of the laborious twisting and shaping of wire. Combining the symbolic object with
the self creates a duality to the exposure and speaks to penance
not so much as a Judaea-Christian definition, but one more connected to Indian religious
traditions, where the term changes from penance to “tapas,” focusing more on enlightenment
then the ritualistic restaging of pain and struggle.
Connie DK Lane
BRAVURA
Apr 16 – Apr 20, 2018
For Connie DK Lane’s installation, Bravura, a large number of hand-made anthropomorphic
forms made out of latex rubber, a simulation of apparels for all genders, will be
displayed throughout the window case. Bamboo support devices will be constructed to
display some of the forms; whereas, others will be hung from the ceiling or attached
to the wall. In addition to dressing the window, I intend to have a live fashion
show performed on the reception date. Students and audience-members will be invited
to serve as models; they will put on the unique latex clothing forms and walk along
inside the window passageway.
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