Chris' thesis show, was Re: Friends; not OT at all

Today I attended a process demonstration by Chris
Anderson of her three-color gum over cyanotype
technique. I also had an opportunity to get a
preview of the work that forms part of her thesis
show, which will open tomorrow evening at the Lee
Gallery on the Clemson University campus.

Without any question the technical quality of
Chris' three-color gum work is as good as I have
ever seen, and I have seen many vintage prints of
this type as well as the work of many
contemporary workers, including that of my
colleague at Clemson University Sam Wang. Chris
said that one of the reason she came to Clemson
to do her MFA was to study with Sam, and based on
the quality of the work she has done while in
South Carolina he must be very proud.

As for the artistic quality, all I can say is
wow! Chris presents two different bodies of work,
one which addresses vanitas vanitatum, where she
deals with such issues as gender stereotypical
expectations where she combines images and text
from comic strips of the 50s to 70s with
contemporary images that suggest the irony and
absurdity of the expectation. Lots of humor here,
but many of the images have a very sharp and
disconcerting edge that startles with its clarity
in revealing the absurdity of our expectations.
One image in particular, name which escapes me
(and Chris has a true "genius" with titles"),
really caught my attention. The image juxtaposes
a comic strip in which a young and very beautiful
woman says something to the effect that "he" is
so imperfect and "she" so imperfect, with a
contemporary image of a shirtless middle-age man
with a rather large belly driving a pontoon boat
down a lake (or something similar).

Another body of work address the vanities of what
Chris calls a wabi sabi type of beauty and much
of this work is in mordançage, which captures the
transition between caos and authenticity of
being. Although Chris notes the oriental base of
this concept I find it not unlike Aristotle's
concept of matter seeking form.

Such a delight this MFA show. Wish you all could be there.

Sandy

>Thanks for the kind words, Jan!
>
>It gives me the opportunity to invite anyone in the area to my thesis show
>this week, Clemson University Lee Gallery. The reception is this Friday
>night at 6 PM. I am really happy with it! There are 37 works in there, 33
>are large gum prints only 1/3 of which are on the website, and 4
>mordancages. It is in dialogue with another grad student, Bob Bickey, a
>sculptor, who does a lot of....hmmm.....sculptures with alternative
>materials and of a shall we say sexually referent nature. His work and my
>work together is quite the hoot! We think we are going to serve cocktail
>weenies with toothpicks and Hostess snowballs
>with red gumdrops on top at the show opening to
>reference male and female body parts...(just
>kidding, Sam...sort of...)
>
>I did pass my orals yesterday with much nervousness. Now onto final draft of
>thesis.
>
>Tomorrow if anyone is in the area I am giving a "lunch and learn" at Clemson
>University where I will demo my gum printing method and talk about my work.
>
>Caveat: tonight while preparing materials for said lunch and learn, two of
>my cyanotype underlayers printed really odd. Then I realized I had printed
>the blue layer with the blue negative. Oops. Luckily it was in the privacy
>of my own bedroom and not at the university's demo. I'll use it as a visual
>and just say I planned it that way to teach what NOT to do.
>Chris
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: <jpptprnt@verizon.net>
>>A week or so ago, I got a PM from Chris Anderson. She was cleaning out some
>>files at school (Sam is that part of the MFA program). She asked me if I
>>would like some of the materials (things that I was in). Well I e-mailed
>>back
>>and said it had been along time since I had seen them, sure. This fine
>>LADY
>>in the middle of putting up an MFA yes MFA SHOW took the time to send the
>>stuff out. I really want to thank her for all her hard work and I wish her
>>well on her show.
>>xoxoxoxJanxoxoxo
>>ps see you in santa fe
Received on Thu Apr 21 20:09:03 2005