Adam Welch’s new exhibit provokes thoughts on ‘Contradictions’

A Few Objects — On a Theme of Contradiction

709 Penn Gallery

Jan. 8-Feb. 19

Wed. and… A Few Objects — On a Theme of Contradiction

709 Penn Gallery

Jan. 8-Feb. 19

Wed. and Thurs.: 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Fri. and Sat.: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Sun.: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sometimes art is meant to simply look beautiful, to briefly catch our eyes as we hurry by — a minute distraction from the million things on our daily agendas.

Other times, however, art is meant to make us stop and think about the world in which we live, and about where exactly we fit within it.

It can also provoke discussion about purple sex toys and games of computer solitaire.

Pittsburgh artist Adam Welch asks us to delve beneath the surface and tap into deeper thought with his current exhibit, “A Few Objects — On a Theme of Contradiction,” which is on display until Feb. 19 at the 709 Penn Gallery Downtown.

The pieces constituting Welch’s current body of work “make play of theoretical information and implicit contradictions in the constructs developed to better understand our existence,” according to the exhibit press release.

“The common thread that fixes my actions, thoughts, being to something of function may simply be contradiction — most things I do, say, think are sort of lost in … opposites continually playing out internally and in reciprocation with my environment,” Welch said.

Sonja Sweterlitsch, the recently appointed curator of the 709 Penn Gallery, said that Welch is “interested in exposing the contradictions within and between theories that are developed as a way to understand our existence. These contradictions can cause an unraveling that makes us wonder what we really know about ourselves and our being.”

According to Sweterlitsch, art on display includes “painting, drawing, sculpture, found objects, movement, sound and light,” all based upon this theme of opposition.

A large panel, 150 inches by 80 inches, stands at an angle near the entrance of the gallery, beckoning passers-by inside to look and to think.

Titled “Of Individualization and the Orgy,” this piece is swathed in various shades of pink, and a white fabric blankets the panel’s perimeter, inducing a softening effect.

Appearing in various corners and near the edge of the piece are designs of blue, orange, gray and peach that resemble cellular patterns and molecular structures.

The piece’s vibrant pink and soft edges flirt with the notion of living tissue, which makes the very piece seem alive. The rigidity and repetitive design of the added lines seem to emulate matter at its tiniest proportions.

Almost quickly enough to cause a sort of scale-shock, viewers are then confronted with a work that blasts us out of the miniscule and into something resembling the unknown void above us.

“Finding Order” consists of a projection screen with tiny puncture holes that reveal, if only in specks, a back lighting element. The screen is covered in splashes of paint in various colors, and connecting the scattered little bursts of light are rigid white lines, creating geometric shapes reminiscent of constellations.

This piece calls to mind the grandest scale of our existence, of our universe.

“‘Solitaire,’ the large painting on the back wall, is a poetic image of ‘unraveling,’ representing a computer game of solitare as it freezes and breaks up on a computer screen,” Sweterlitsch said.

“This is the moment that takes us out of the game, and we become aware of the interface we are interacting with. The interface that presented a game world we could comfortably act in is now exposed,” she said.

Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking of Welch’s pieces is the one titled “F*cking Archetypes.”

Against a blue backdrop is a sculpture consisting of various objects, including an inflated life jacket, a pink cloth flower and a fuzzy sock. This piece’s most outrageous component may not be immediately obvious to onlookers.

Initially, what seems a hodgepodge of stationary objects — a paint-covered step stool and a bucket of nails in addition to those already mentioned — comes to life every few moments.

With a woosh and a rattle, a small red balloon near the base of the sculpture inflates, and the life jacket component of the piece moves back and forth. As fast as it became animated, the sculpture comes to rest, the balloon deflating back to its original flaccidity.

The title of this piece may not make a lot of sense at this point in the viewing experience. “Archetype” might hit home; the blue backdrop is somewhat evocative of a blueprint, considering the few black lines inked onto its surface and, of course, its overall blueness.

However, take a step closer and the rest of the title will become much more clear ­— attached to the back of the life jacket, the object doing all that slamming into the backdrop, is nothing other than a vibrantly purple dildo.