I’m pining for some academic activity...... In college I had a professor that would simply describe works of art that they were looking at: they would break everything down into simple — and often symbolic — terms, and all of a sudden everything would be explained and I could easily understand the piece. Let’s try an exercise:
Gallery C
Dan Shaw-Town: Drawings
What am I looking at?
There are two support structures, harnessed by the strength of the wall, holding a piece of single-ply cardboard across the space between them. One support structure is thin, vertical, and holds the cardboard at its bottom. The second structure is tapered, at its thickest in the middle, where it attaches to the wall. It folds over at the halfway point, creating a perpendicular angle to the wall. It is painted in misty blue and pink. The cardboard holds a weathered, semi-glossy sheet of fabric, folded upon itself multiple times. The seductive surface quality of the materials invites touch. The dark, fabric-like material appears to hold a significant weight, as it softly bends the cardboard that is holding it up, on display, in a space between two support structures.
On a neighboring wall, there is yet another assemblage in which two hanging structures support a draped piece of fabric (although this is an exercise in description, I must not falsely advertise the word “fabric,” as this material is actually paper that has been heavily drawn-upon with graphite and charcoal). A pair of baby-pink hangers, which are typically used to properly store clothing, rest side-by-side and share in the task of supporting two separate sheets of this mystery fabric. One carries a silver-black sheet of this mystery fabric, and the other carries a diagonally striped — in alternating light and dark tones — piece, of the same apparent size, weight, and material.
Let’s simplify it a little more.
Modestly on display, a pair of metal, oppositional vertical structures support a sheet of basic packing material. Upon this, a folded sheet of a dark, shiny fabric — heavier than it’s support system itself.
Two identical plastic, cheap household items hang on the wall next to each other, holding two differently patterned, tattered, fabric-like materials.
Keep going...
One dark, heavy component being held up by a basic, weak component, which is held up by two thin (though not weak) components, all being held up by the gallery wall for the ultimate display of this first component.
This piece is about: Family
Or, Capitalism
?
A twin pair of bright domestic items holding dark, flimsy materials.
This piece is about: Inner Beauty
Or, Consumerism
?
Okay, I give up.
