Movers and Shakers
Colleen Becker
Like the Collision Machine collective that spawned the latest show at Wooster Arts Space, "Brooklyn Shakers" is more concerned with exhibiting new work by young Williamsburg and Bushwick artists than presenting a cohesive curatorial vision. Luckily, much of the work selected is strong enough to stand alone, even without the imposed structure of a theoretical framework. Curated by Kathleen Smith, the exhibit consists of paintings and photographs by Jaishri Abichandani, Eric Ayotte, Lisa di Donato, Jon Elliott, Gwenessa Lam and Tod Seelie.
Jon Elliott’s phantasmagoric paintings and Lisa di Donato’s coolly objective photographs emerge as some of the most compelling pieces in the show and, almost inadvertently, they also provide what the exhibition as a whole lacks: common ground. Both artists take urban detritus as their subject, albeit from opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of technique and approach. With paintings like Surge 3, Jon Elliott presents a fatalistic vision of our natural habitat ravaged by toxic run-off and technological waste, while Lisa di Donato’s C-print Modern Ruins offers quiet reflection on the architectural artifacts of industrial obsolescence. Formally evocative of 19th century predecessors like John Martin or J.M.W. Turner, the seductive luminosity of Elliott’s Surge 3 and Phantasm 2 draws us into a world in which the material residue of willful human ambition takes on a nightmarish life of its own, threatening to undermine the so-called progress offered by utopian technological imaginings. Di Donato also portrays a panoramic cityscape in the process of decay, but one more closely aligned with design aesthetics. Itself dependent upon mechanical means of production, Modern Ruins is an uncritical view of the omnipresent, but often ignored, skeletal structures created by the decomposition of neglected industrial zones. While both artists make use of a timely choice of subject matter, Elliott resuscitates monumental painting for the purposes of didacticism, while di Donato taps into the smooth seamlessness of contemporary graphic production.
Also worth a mention are Eric Ayotte’s paintings of motorcycle and car crashes. Like Elliott, he shows us the tragic side of man’s fascination with machinery, and composes his work through a vibrant interplay of light and color. In Motorcycle Number 2, he amplifies the palpable speed obsession of his off-track racers with infrared effects. Hot light and color generate visual intensity, casting a hazy glow over the scene of the accident, while obfuscating and beautifying the wreckage.
The fact that Brooklyn is home to a host of provocative new artists is not news. Highly publicized, large-scale shows like 2004’s similarly uneven "Open House: Working in Brooklyn" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art have already directed attention to the borough’s art scene. Were curators more focused on exploring consonances and dialogue between works of art, rigorous thematic art exhibits might also make it across the East River and into Manhattan.
