Relativity II - James Davis and Jeannine Harkleroad

Relativity - Jeannine Harkleroad, originally uploaded by Bromirski

James Davis - James Davis is the artist whose pieces are pictured here behind the Jules Olitski pedestals. He's got three pieces in the show, two of which are very similar and one that is much more interesting. The two pieces that are both sort of dead on the wall utilize that accumulative process that is currently such a popular sculptural trope. One is a mandala on canvas of a million little colored glue balls and the other is a mandala of a million colored-pencil concentric rings. His third piece is created through a process of both accumulation and removal, it's a big rectangle of mdf board through which he's drilled(?) a number - less than a million - of various sized small holes. The brownish mdf board against the blue wall looks great and the board is hung not directly against the wall but on hooks or something so it floats a couple inches off the wall - you can peek in at the side and all of the little circles of overlapping shadow and light in that narrow space is like blasting off to warp-speed.

I think he has a show coming up at RARE?

Jeannine Harkleroad - Jeannine's is the sculptural installation piece pictured in the yellow room above. This piece is actually the set from a performance she did at the opening. I missed the performance but I've heard about it and seen some photos. There was a person in a chicken mascot suit with a football at one end and a goal post and traffic light at the far end. Jeanine and another person were laying down inside those little houses at the top of the ramps and at the signal they sped down and crashed into one another. I'm not sure what the performance means exactly other than that she set it up so she was doomed to fail with the little house she was in crashing into the larger house, neither reaching the goal post.

The best part of the after-performance installation is noticing the amount of care and attention to detail which went into it's construction. The vividly colored green and blue shingles on the houses are cut from paint chip samples, the yellow fringe all along the ramp depicts a mirror image print(?) of highway traffic, a small flying Jeannine cut-out is soaring above the houses. Best of all was discovering that the "wood" paneled interior of the houses is all cushioned fabric. You wouldn't know unless you touched it. Charm points everywhere.

Maybe the performance was about absurdity and futility in spite of planning and care.

I don't have any good pictures of specific works, just installation shots, so if the artists or anyone else want to send some jpgs I'll post them.