Aesthetics as an afterthought

“The Pittsburgh Banal”

Through April 23, 2006

Regina Gouger Miller…

“The Pittsburgh Banal”

Through April 23, 2006

Regina Gouger Miller Gallery

Purnell Center for the Arts

Carnegie Mellon University

5000 Forbes Ave.

(412) 268-3618

What’s a better way to get an idea about the future of contemporary art than by checking out the graduate thesis works of one of the nation’s top 10 Masters of Fine Arts programs?

“The Pittsburgh Banal” is an exhibition of the works from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art Masters of Fine Arts graduates on display at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, located inside the Purnell Center for the Arts on CMU’s campus.

According to Susanne Slavick, head of CMU’s School of Art, the exhibition’s title should be taken tongue-in-cheek and is an “invitation to anything but banality!”

This year’s graduates – Matthew Barton, William Cravis, Takehito Etani, Jesse Hulcher, Thomas Sturgill and Tiffany Sum – each present thought-provoking art with their own brands of originality.

Matthew Barton’s untitled installation is a magical forest presented in a dreamscape that borders on a nightmare. The forest is made up of fake animals that resemble children’s toys.

“I’m trying to find a harmony of joyful delight and disturbing morbidity, giving a sensation of pleasure and trauma at once,” Burton said in his artist statement.

Upon tripping a motion detector, the forest comes alive: A fox runs in circles, a squirrel spins around and a beaver flaps its tail. There is also a cloud one can climb into and then slide down a rainbow.

William Cravis’ thesis is presented in several installations, all with strong political overtones. His most interesting one is 10 attache cases, each on its own pedestal, that appear to be filled with money. A closer look shows that this “money” is really clippings from the Wall Street Journal cut into the shape of bills.

Each briefcase seems to have its own theme, ranging from money itself to watches and jewelry to political and economic figures to corporate logos and art.

A similar work is “What Weighs Five Hundred Pounds and Hangs on the End of a Chain.” Here Cravis has taken old New York Times newspapers and shaped them into a giant ball. He turns yesterday’s headlines into gray pulp that amounts to something that looks like a wrecking ball as it hangs from the ceiling.

Through a collage of several works, Etani’s work culminates to form his thesis, “Pimp My Heart.” An allusion to MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” and a pumping heart, these installations seek to integrate car and driver through a love of music.

Also a performance piece, Etani uses his invented HeartBeat Bass Booster system to amplify the heartbeat of a car driver in some attempt to address the relationship of a driver to his car and the obsession with automobiles and their modifications.

Hulcher’s work – a collection of video projects – shows the absurdity of Pittsburgh’s newest Warhol.

“I want to become the most successful failure that I can be,” Hulcher declares in his artist statement.

His video explores cliched realms and “tired subject matter,” such as fart jokes in an attempt to glorify such low-brow notions that, in Hulcher’s own words, “lack conceptual originality.” Hulcher’s hope is that there is an endearing amount of individuality that resonates throughout his work, helping viewers learn to appreciate such commonplace expressions.

Sturgill’s thesis can be considered abstract installation art. Based on architecture, Sturgill designed a spacious miniature city of nonrepresentational buildings.

“This is an exploration in physicality and objects, conventions and an inability to satisfactory [sic] classify and understand,” Sturgill said.

Sturgill’s work definitely carries a strong sense of ambiguity; the trouble there is that his piece remains unalluring. Sturgill describes the sculptures as “inherently difficult,” and it seems that he’s created a barrier that doesn’t allow the viewer to enter the landscape he’s trying to present.

Sum, the only female of the class, presents a nervous and claustrophobic environment with her piece, “fingering.” In a room with four video projectors on each wall, Sum creates a world where it feels like everyone is out to get you.

Through some visual illusion, on one screen there is a woman who seems to follow the viewer throughout the room with a gun and a gunshot echoes throughout. On the opposite wall is the same woman who seems to be pacing and following the viewer with sinister eyes. The other two walls feature the same woman again, both images with pointing fingers that seem to mock and follow the viewers.

“The Pittsburgh Banal” as a whole displays that art still has new things to say, and these emerging artists are finding new ways to say them, but at what cost?

In all of these works it seems that the concepts remain the most important part and pleasing images take a back seat. While reading through the artist’s statements I got the feeling that more effort is put into coming up with powerful and meaningful statements about what one’s art should do; creating something aesthetically pleasing is an afterthought.

For these artists, it doesn’t seem to be about how it looks – it is completely about what it says. This favoring of concept over aesthetics leaves the viewer pondering (and perhaps concerned about) the future of contemporary art.