Oceans Has High Tide Appeal – Shana Mabari at Porch Gallery in Ojai

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Running through May 23rd at Porch Gallery in Ojai, Shana Mabari’s new Oceans solo exhibition glows and shimmers like sun on the sea. Mabari previously presented artwork at the gallery that resulted from her NASA SOFIA space mission; the current exhibition is an outgrowth of her residency aboard Sea Shepherd Global off the coast of Africa.

Referencing the horizon, and its visually magical fusion with the sky, or depicting luminous sculptures evoking coral, her work evokes the light and ambiance of the sea, and its eliptical calling to humankind.

Mabari is the first artist-in-residence aboard on a Sea Shepherd Global maritime mission. The direct-action ocean conservation organization brought the artist on a five-day sailing off the west coast of Africa, in a clandestine effort to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in the waters of Benin. The mission resulted in the arrest of of an illegally fishing trawler; and brought the inspiration for Oceans. 

Mabari’s ethereally lovely sculptural works are created as two separate series within the exhibition. There are elongated cylinders of the  “Korāl” sculptures, and her circular “Horizōn” pieces. Created from all acrylic material,  the “Korāl” installation contains over 60 free-standing sculptures beteween 7″ and 14″ tall, in varied colors that range through a rainbow spectrum of red, blue, violet, yellow, and orange. These works were not only inspired by coral reefs, but positioned for exhibition as such as well, highlighting awareness of the coral reef devastation throughout the oceans, as well as their beauty underwater.

Her sculptural works in “Horizon” are wall-mounted. Eight, 15″ disks each contain a horizon line that recalls the meeting of sea and sky, and both that line’s call of exploration, and its use as a measurement tool by early mathematicians and astronomers.

Mabari has also created a new book featuring images of the “Koral” sculptures and essays about her Sea Shepherd residence, produced in collaboration with Sébastien Montabonel of the London-based Alaska Editions.

From the skies, flying aboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, to the seas on the Sea Shepherd mission, Mabari works to create comprehension of the vast and incomprehensible wonder of the world, and the risk that humans pose to it. Both as calls to action against ecological disaster, and as expressions of humankind’s connectivity to nature and the universe itself,  Mabari’s work engages the spirit with her color, light, reflection, and form. Melding scientific inquiry – and it’s importance – with her art, Mabari offers viewers the chance to engage with sea and sky through her fluid geometric forms.

Ten-percent of the proceeds from exhibition sales will benefit Sea Shepherd Global. Gallery is located at 310 E. Matilija St., Ojai, CA 93023.

 

 – Genie Davis, photos provided by Porch Gallery and the artist

Susan Ossman’s In the Wash is Beauty in Motion

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Beautiful and evocative, Susan Ossman’s exhibition In the Wash is as vibrant as it is graceful.

Made up of three large-scale works, each of which is comprised of four to six canvasses, the works depict laundry drying in the open air, stretched across multiple canvases like sheets strung on a clothesline.

Each piece follows a progressive color palette, as alive with the changing seasons as the sheets are with movement of the breeze, and the generations-long ritual of pinning freshly washed objects to clotheslines. The works are also a reflection on waiting, according to the artist.

Like all Ossman’s art, these pieces suggest movement and light, emerging from her use of lines. Clotheslines, and the action of hanging laundry are intrinsic in the gestures of the paintings, but the lines also seem to represent a kind of kinetic energy running through the works. The undulating sense of motion is hypnotic in these pieces, as is the artist’s use of rich color and soft texture.

The first painting in the exhibition, “Christo’s Laundry,”  above, uses a classical style of oil painting that recreates the soft, gentle movement of the fabric on a spring day. There’s a sense of calm in the subtle movement she depicts. The colors are those of spring flowers, lavender, pale blue, deep purple. The yellow of the sheets is soft and pale, like the spring sun.

Ossman’s style veers more toward the modernist in the expressionistic “Winter Wash,” which evokes a sense of haste in the more rapid wintery movement of the wind, and her depiction of the environment in which the laundry lines are strung. It is a tangle of swirling lines and the curls of blue and orange seem to be a visual depiction of motion itself. The palette is darker, with a stronger emphasis on the burnt umber quality of winter light.

The lively, vivid “Caught in the Sheets,” edges into the abstract, the energy and sense of movement it exudes are almost palpable. We see the sheets in intimate perspective, tangled up with them, forming a relationship with them. The sheets fit together like the pieces of a large puzzle or mosaic; and while the oranges and yellows are dominant in hue, they are paler, the light blue in the right canvas component drawing the eye the most.

Each work requires contemplation, or rather demands it, both to take in the full long strokes of the artist’s brush, and the enormity of the canvases as well as their details. The humble nature of the subject – and indeed, the context of it as a fundamental, necessary, and unappreciated part of life itself, imbues the paintings with a subtle grace, a sense of gratitude for simple rituals.

The exhibition also includes a video depicting the artist’s process and the context of her paintings within a broader overall project, On the Line, that also included anthropological research and historical research on laundry lines, as well as reflection on her own past art practice and the creation of an environment to inspire an extension of the work into other art forms, including performance. Ossman has worked with dancers interpreting her works. “In the video you see the connection between the movements and the paintings and the movements of the bodies of the dancers. Showing these and telling the story of the project expands viewers’ ways of thinking about these paintings and painting more generally… perhaps these works encourage attention to these movements more than some others. The multiple panels, the compositions and in some cases the brush strokes encourage this,” Ossman explains.

The video, which runs approximately six minutes, explores how poets, dancers, and musicians picked up on the movement and rhythms with sound, words, and their bodies. “It was like an extension of my own movement, almost as though the movement of my arm and body painting created a momentum and a direction that they picked up on with their arm or leg or the way several dancers intertwined their own bodies,” she says. The dancers took on the dynamics of her painting, using actions that indicated bodily movement, the sense of wind, and the sense of the seasons passing, which are all visually revealed in the paintings themselves.

Also available at the exhibition, for further insight into Ossman’s work, are two publications: one about her art, and one that discusses both her work as an artist and as an anthropologist, Shifting Worlds, Shaping Fields, A Memoir of Anthropology and Art.

The generosity of Ossman’s collaborations and insight into the ebb and flow of natural life recently took a different bent in an early March exhibition on the steps of the Museum of Riverside, in which her 22-foot collage “One and Many,” inspired by California poppy fields, invited a reflection on “the relationship of the part to the whole, the individual, the group, the community.” Participants were invited to take a small piece of artwork from the layered collage and fill in the blank space on the canvas with work of their own.

 

That same sense of inclusivity, universality, and movement, is what drives In the Wash. Like the wind, change is constant yet the wind itself stays as an eternal force. Ossman goes a long way to expressing the constancy of change itself, and the collective consciousness of those who are a living part of it. And, these large works are, in and of themselves, separate from any choate meaning, simply visually dazzling.

Also on exhibit at Gallery 825 are (left to right) the thought-provoking textile flag works of Sol Hill, in State of the Union; James R. Lane’s EYECU, a delicate series of acid-washed images of animal art viewed from their perspective that’s both haunting and wise; and the tragic beauty of the looming destruction of our planet in the photographic work of Matricide – Destiny Manifested, from Don Porter.

These fine exhibitions, along with In the Wash, are on display until May 13th, and are visible both online at https://www.laaa.org/4-solo-shows-at-gallery-825 and in person at Gallery 825, located at 825 N. La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood. Call or email the gallery for hours.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and provided by Susan Ossman

SXSW 2022 Film – Brilliant Documentaries, Compelling Features

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I picked, I watched, I wished – I could see more of SXSW 2022’s stellar film festival offerings. Managing to view both jury and audience narrative film award winner I Love My Dad was a fluke of scheduling, but what a delightful, fresh film that is, among so many other terrific entries.

Let’s dive in:

Narrative Features

Based on the writer/director’s true story, the brilliantly poignant and twisted comedy of I Love My Dad offered a fresh take on the concept of catfishing, the persuasiveness of social media, and parental failings, as well as mental health struggles. The premise of James Morosini’s film is that a dad, rejected by the son who cuts him off from Facebook and text messages, creates a fake Facebook profile to keep an eye on his adult child.

Played with a mix of heartbreaking loneliness and determined delusion, Chuck (Patton Oswalt) convinces his son in the reality of Becca, whose profile photos match that of a waitress kind to Chuck at a local diner. The inevitability of discovery, the high tension stakes of the encounter (the son has recently returned from treatment for a suicide attempt), and the gentle kindness of the film’s humor combine for a unique, uncomfortable, nail-biting experience – well-tempered by laughter. A must watch when it receives its (inevitable?) release. But you would’ve seen it at SXSW 2022 first.

Chee$e – Fresh and fun in its own way — when have you last seen a film about a Trinidadian cheesemaker turned weed smuggler, with a pregnant, very-much part-time girlfriend and ambitions for a better life? The voice-over narration adds context and humor to the first film in a planned trilogy by Damian Marcano; the film is subtitled (primarily for accents and dialect that would otherwise by hard to understand), and has a loopy,  winning dramedy script that keeps viewers rooting for protagonist Skimma (Akil Gerard Williams).  The conclusion leaves audiences somewhat adrift, literally and figuratively, in an otherwise satisfying, stakes-building film. But the same could be said of the far less interesting first installment of Dune. 

Sissy – Social satire with a twist, that’s the darkly comic lure of this female-driven comedy. Social media influencer Sissy (Aisha Dee) is deeply unfortunately reintroduced to a former bff, Emma (Hannah Barlow, who also co-wrote and co-directed, along with Kane Senes). As traumas from Sissy’s past resurface at a bachelorette weekend at a glamorous, remote guest house, increasingly horrendous events unfold, leading to chaos, revenge, and murder. The film’s wit is seductive in getting the audience to root for one character before turning the tables – in an unexpected way.  Somewhat reminiscent of, but smarter than, Blake Lively’s mommy vlogger saga in 2018’s mainstream release, A Simple Favor, in the Australian Sissy, Dee was a terrific lead, and the story surprised with its final twists.

To Leslie – An intense portrait of an alcoholic, Leslie followed the bottom-dwelling life of a former lottery winner, beginning with a devastating interaction with her grown son,  that takes her back to the small town from which she came, only to get unexpected help from a compassionate motel manager. Extremely well acted and atmospheric, at about the 3/4 point began to feel less and less believable, culminating with a happy ending I just didn’t quite buy. That said, Michael Morris’ unflinching direction, based on a true-story-based script from Ryan Bianco, and a compelling lead performance by Andrea Riseborough make this West Texas drama hard to write off.  Perfect moments more than outweighed contrivances; the characters were each richly created; a thumbs-up for a heartfelt story and evocative grit.

Raquel 1:1 – Religious fervor, religious persecution, a mysterious family death, domestic violence – these are the subjects either major or minor in the story of a young girl and her father, newly returned to the father’s hometown in writer/director Mariana Bastos story of a religious teenager named Raquel (Valentina Herszage), haunted by her final moments with her mother as we slowly learn what exactly happened the night of her death. Lots of potential here, and a foreshadowing of something more apocalyptic than rewriting the Bible to be more feminist, opposed by the conservative town “church girls” aka “mean girls.” However, the supernatural never appeared (except in Raquel’s mind, perhaps), and the conclusion drifted away like a teenager’s crush.  Seething with potential,  the film is still worth a view.

Millie Lays Low – While not quite as perfectly paced as I Love My Dad, Millie nonetheless has many of the same conventions of rising tension carried with gentle comedy. Millie is the story of a young New Zealand woman just trying to get a new plane ticket to New York City.  And, like Dad, Millie also relies on social media to craft a personality that just isn’t her. Millie (Ana Scotney) is the recipient of a prestigious architectural scholarship, one she achieved under dubious circumstances. Suffering a panic attack on a NYC-bound flight, she delusionally hopes her Instagram posts, replete with fake backgrounds and happy hashtags will lead others to believe she’s already in the Big Apple, living a good life, instead of sleeping in an Auckland subway, trying to scam a new ticket. Finding her own truth and the true circumstances of others, Millie is forced to confront demons within and unvarnished reality without, all played with edgy dark humor.

Pretty Problems – Another dark comedy – I’m not sure if I picked them, or these picked me. I was intrigued from the very first moment, in which the “meet cute” is between female friends, one extremely wealthy, the other a would-be fashion designer working in a clothing shop. Director Kestrin Pantera’s comic timing is impeccable in a witty look at wealth and privilege written by Michael Tennant. The four-hander takes place on a weekend trip to an estate in Sonoma’s wine country, where a hedonistically fun party leads to revelations about love, sex, friendship, and most importantly of all, trust. So sharp and engaging was the script, the dangling threads at the end can be forgiven, if not entirely written off; the can’t-look-away trainwreck of a house party had enough lively twists and turns to fully engage viewers and render each scene entirely, seductively, and most unfortunately (for the protagonists) believable.

It Is In Us All – Poetic, visceral, terrifying, and mysterious – in equal parts, this Irish thriller takes viewers on a ride edging toward both horror and supernatural, while not quite taking us to either destination. This film will have you thinking about its meaning for a long time, at least it did me. As with so many SXSW films, it’s a find that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere. Director Antonia Campbell-Hughes’ debut feature stars Cosmo Jarvis as Hamish, a privileged businessman, in Donnegal to oversee the dissolution of his aunt’s estate, which he discovers to have also been his mother’s childhood home. But this revelation appears only after a terrible car accident, in which one teen is killed, the other, Evan survives. Hamish and Evan form an unlikely bond,  one that keeps us guessing as to its intent – revenge, near-death experience, sexual attraction? And in the end, who is really alive, following that fatal collision? Who is truly alive, ever? This is a film to seek out, the type of cinematic experience well worth a film chat room discussion or two.

Slash/Back – Although full of promise as a John Carpenter-like horror thriller, with a potent setting in a Canadian village on the Arctic Circle, this teen horror just didn’t work for me, as clearly unprofessional actors somewhat derailed the fun, shape-shifting alien monster premise. Nyla Innuksuk has strong directorial chops nonetheless (she also co-wrote the script Ryan Cavan), giving us a lively group of young teens as the protagonists to save the world.

Deadstream – Another fun horror that didn’t quite work for me. Solo web-streamer goes ghost hunting is the premise, as the besieged and previously discredited live vlogger protagonist reads witty and cruel comments from his streaming audience and interacts with them, a clever conceit for an ultra low budget scarefest. Unfortunately, the premise grew a bit old. Still, a bravura performance by Joseph Winter as the inept vlogger Shawn Ruddy does hold well,  and the quick one-liners and surprisingly effective if limited jump scares do, too.  Kudos for the fun from Winter (with Vanessa Winter, who co-wrote and co-directed) and the sale of this ultra-low budget, clever project to streaming service Shudder.

Documentary Features

32 Sounds – moving from the narrative to documentary,  this terrific original film was an interactive experience, with the audience provided headphones and instructions on when to close eyes among other moments of auditory serendipity. The film is difficult to explain but a treat to experience. Director Sam Green leads the way into a feast of delightful explorations of sound, from an interview with and experience of listening to the lifework of a fascinating recorder of plant sounds to a fetal heartbeat, a Foley sound effects introduction,  and music made from the sound of breaking glass. In love with its 32 soundscapes, this documentary is a joy to ears, eyes, and heart – not to mention an exceptional experience.

Not as mesmerizing as 32 Sounds, but completely engaging in an entirely different way, is the story of The Pez Outlaw, a subject worthy of a novel or narrative release. Amy Bandlien Storkel and Bryan Storkel’s lively doc uses reenactments and reminiscences to fuel the story of a man with undiagnosed OCD who turned a passion for collecting gimmicky toys to an obsession – and million dollar business – from selling Pez containers. Unfortunately, his downfall was Pez America’s bullying company nemesis, who ended up copying “outlaw” Steve Glew’s own designs as well as those Glew brought in from Europe, circumnavigating a grey area in customs law.  A pure delight.

Master of Light – took the jury award for best doc at SXSW, and it is an interesting study of the life and fabulous art of George Anthony Morton, who developed his Classical painting skills over ten years spent in a federal prison. Morton’s reconciliation with his mother, who had him at 15, and raised him in a drug house, is also explored. But the emphasis is on the amazing skill and beauty of his art, and how art itself elevates the spirit. Smoothly directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten, while I wanted more background to the story, the film stays purely focused on the art, which is as masterful as the title suggests.

The Thief Collector – A suburban mom and dad art thief duo are the complex characters dissected in this doc, Allison Otto’s film about the mysterious theft of Willem de Kooning’s masterpiece “Woman-Ochre,” stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson back in 1985. Three decades later, the painting, worth $160 million, was found in the rural New Mexico home of Jerry and Rita Alter. While the couple lived outwardly conventional lives as school teachers, their global travels, a book of short stories written by Jerry (and reenacted in part in the film), and the alluded-to but never delved-into information that their two children both have “problems,” tell a different story. Enlivened by reminiscences from the couple’s nephew, the story left me wanting more. Mini-series ahead, perhaps?

My features take away: SXSW never ceases to deliver compelling films. It is the freshest major fest around – and Austin is a great city to visit!

Shorts will be coming up next.

  • Genie Davis; images provided by SXSW or film companies/publicists

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Celio Explores the Past at Elephant

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Jennifer Celio’s impressive solo exhibition, The Wilderness Within closed at Elephant a month ago, but it haunts the imagination – of both viewer and the artist. Celio transformed the intimate space at the Glassell Park gallery into a suburban house garage, one displaying souvenirs and objects that referred to the intersection of the urban (or suburban) world and that of nature. Referencing the hunting of exotic animals, and the hunting of memories and truth, Celio created a treasure-trove of reclaimed and reformed the stories of her childhood.

The quality of memories both restored and expurgated, held dear and in that transitional space between what we know now, and what we knew then,  brings a special poignancy to a terrific installation that serves as a life-size diorama of both the past — and the future of humankind.

The installation is based on Celio’s memories of her grandparents’ Southern California suburban home. The garage, which was also a workshop space for her grandfather, included some elements that were outside the scope of most tract houses of the era. Here were hung exotic animal heads that both horrified and fascinated the artist. Allowed to gather dust in the garage, there were other elements around her grandparents property that exuded the same repulsion and interest – an elephant foot ashtray,  among the memorabilia.  Adding to the somehow both fond and shocking quality of the objects, the artist learned as an adult that these artifacts were not the trophies belonging to her grandfather or half-forgotten purchases from an estate sale, but that they were from her grandmother’s safaris with her previous husband.
Celio’s mixed media work in this installation was a kind of wondrous and strange grab bag of memory itself: there were assemblages, vintage and personal belongings, 80s-style furnishings including lampshades made of macrame, and faux National Park posters. The latter were created in the look of the WPA decade with updated irony in the form of cell towers that look like trees, smart-phone selfie taking, and catch phrases encouraging social media use.
Here, too, were cigarette stubs made from worn pencils, a dart board with faux fur elements, and as a centerpiece, a seating area that includes the aforementioned elephant foot ashtray – this one crafted of paper, wood, and a vintage ashtray.
There are coffee cans that are painted with animal/Africa themes, an umbrella crafted of delicate paper, a series of witty paintings that feature drones.  Creating this immersive environment from diverse memories and facts, Celio used found materials extensively.
Surreal, elegiac, and profoundly intimate,The Wilderness Within was a “garage room” dream of art – all secret finds and perfect small elements, an alchemically transformed space that took the viewer back in time, and back into our hearts, to explore both our often complicated pasts and our relationship with nature, our impact on it and our human family.
Celio’s National Parks poster/painting was one of our favorite elements, and if you missed the magic of Celio’s installation itself, you can pre-order a piece of it: a limited edition giclee print of the work from the artist, who you can reach with a message, among other social media locations, here and here.

 

  • Genie Davis; photos: both my own and provided by the artist