King Fisher Project Packs A Punch At Mother Nature
By Aaron Zimmerman
No mundane display of landscape, the work in "Fuck Mother Nature" ushers viewers into art’s ongoing dispute on the issue of man vs. nature in a confrontational, aggressive and clever way. Check out the Press Release intro from Oscar Wilde: "Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place." Ouch! It makes art sound so…Revolutionary! Well, the show wasn’t all that but here is some work I found interesting:
What first caught my attention were Andy Cross’ "Exploitation of Exploration" pieces. Depicting late 19th century P.T. Barnum spectacles and Melvillian era sea expeditions, these ink works are conservative only on the surface. On closer inspection, I saw a tour de force usage of material not possible in those bygone eras. The line quality gives ode to the old ‘quill and ink in the bottle’ method of illustrating. In actuality, the pieces are ballpoint pen executions. The images covertly comment on man’s control over the animal kingdom by employing a visual style preceding the embedded issues of environmental politics and animal rights.
The work of Fran Holstrom was unavoidable; not only because of its size (measuring 6 ft. x 6ft., the piece may as well have been Gericault’ "The Raft of the Medusa" in King Fisher’s modest apartment space), but also because of its exchange of imagery in favor of text. Titling her piece "I Am An Island," the artist is not necessarily against nature but associates with it metaphorically. She describes herself as separate from her environment and her sense of isolation is palpable in the work. The overlapping waves of text under the lime green title/subject describe a "Sea of Shit". Nature here is nothing more than words referring to smelly brown waste.
The work of Angelina Gualdoni, whose sensitively executed, decaying buildings set in peaceful landscapes show the inevitability of man’s conquest of nature, also made a nice showing. With her carefully orchestrated, beautifully colored landscapes Angelina communicates natures’ most feared quality, entropy, which always wins out in the end.
Finally, Mike McFalls’ android cat dissections, and Kineko Ivics’ diarrhea pile made strong additions to the show. In these works, the show’s abrasive thematic undercurrent confronts the viewer with a punch. The detritus serve to remind viewers that the dynamic tension between humans and the worldly womb from which they are born will always exist.
