Escape From The Ordinary – By Danielle Augusta Cannon

At his recent exhibit at Art In General, Mike Peter Smith delivers a strong message with two small works – Fire Escape 6 and Fire Escape 7.

Escape From The Ordinary

By Danielle Augusta Cannon

 

 

 

 

 

 

At his recent exhibit at Art In General, Mike Peter Smith delivers a strong message with two small works – Fire Escape 6 and Fire Escape 7. These white miniature reproductions, created with styrene plastic and steel bolts hang from an equally white wall, creating a sense of dimension that highlights the craftsmanship involved in constructing the work. Upon careful examination, the viewer notices a ladder atop the fire escape, simply leading up. This promotes a sense of spatial anonymity – this fire escape could be anywhere, leading to anything. Smith’s careful use of detail, and perhaps equally important elimination of the extraneous, complement the tone and highlight the intricacies of the Fire Escapes. In a review entitled "Handle with Care" in The Baltimore City Paper, Blake de Pastino says of Smith’s work: "His miniature constructions of styrene and cast urethane stand as feats of technique as well as bitter social reproaches, triumphs of craftsmanship over commercialism."

Perhaps Smith is referencing man’s existential dilemmas. The artist has said: "Through the construction of scale models my work implies narrative. These models represent vessels, characters and environments. The vessels are exacting and precise, yet they are empty, anonymous and unengaged. The peculiar characters are average and ordinary, yet they find themselves caught in dramatic, unresolvable situations." The Fire Escapes may represent society’s inability to remove itself from turmoil and danger – maybe these Fire Escapes speak to a desire for an emotional rescue – an existential reference to man’s inability to "escape" the absurd. In literature, tangible, familiar imagery has long stood as a metaphor for existential ideas – perhaps Smith’s work is no different. Camus used a rock to portray man’s struggles in The Myth of Sisyphus, where the protagonist must, for all eternity, push a large rock uphill, only to have the boulder inevitably fall back down. Smith’s Fire Escapes 6 and 7 may parallel this inability to break free from the abuses and evils permeating modern culture. Is the artist very cleverly commenting on the way in which people have not only compartmentalized their living spaces, but also their emotions? Smith says: "Lacking certain information such as color, grime, or wear, these objects are, nonetheless, specific in detail. Dilemmas enter into these model worlds. Miniature characters encounter mythic problems of self identity, isolation, and vulnerability." Through Fire Escape 6 and Fire Escape 7, Mike Peter Smith shows the viewer that, often, less really is more.