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Juried Summit Artspace show has Halloween theme, 91 works
By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art & architecture writer
Published on Sunday, Oct 12, 2008
Halloween has become such a big deal that it seems to have usurped at least one of the roles traditionally accorded to Christmas: It's become the time we get in touch with our inner child.
Increasingly, little ones out for their early trick or treats are accompanied by parents just as elaborately decked out as they, and the front doors they arrive at are, more often than not, minefields of store-bought spiders, skeletons, witches, demons and ghosts, artfully arranged among the fake webs and jack-o'-lanterns.
We could ruminate ad nauseam on the cause of all this attention now being paid to what used to be, at best, a few hours of fun on a late fall evening. That wouldn't change a thing, however. It is what it is.
What could be as rewarding and, depending on your sense of whimsy, almost as much fun, is Summit Artspace's current show, Fresh & Spooky, on view at Akron Area Arts Alliance, 140 E. Market St., Akron, through Nov. 8.
''Once a year we have the juried show, the Fresh Art Show,'' said Summit Artspace gallery director Joan Colbert, ''And because it's in October, we thought we'd have a theme.''
The theme is, of course, Halloween, and the response was enthusiastic. Ninety-one works have been chosen for the show.
Mark Soppeland, guest juror, was assigned the duty of choosing winners. It seems he couldn't stop, for in addition to the three top winners, Soppeland also awarded more than 20 other honors.
It's easy to understand his difficulty, for the artists obviously had fun with the theme, some of them even venturing into realms (and media) they've never tried before.
Colbert, for instance, who's noted for her prints and watercolors, created when red is gray and yellow, white, an interactive acrylic and plywood piece.
And Don Parsisson, no stranger to conceptual sculpture, ventured into the realm of music to create Overture for Civil Rights, a mixed-media work consisting of three music stands and sheet music containing notations of silent protest.
He did it, he said, because ''it seems so appropriate for the season, both Halloween and the campaign.''
First of all, the sheet music is devoid of notes, not so much in homage to 20th-century conceptual artist John Cage and his 4'33 (four minutes and 33 seconds of silence), but as a means of expressing Parsisson's ideas about the Bush years.
''It's empty,'' said Parsisson. ''There's nothing there. It's all rests and measure after measure of silence. . . .
At the end of the work there's a symbol that means repeat.
''That means it could go on and on,'' said Parsisson. ''Let's hope it doesn't.''
Top prize winners were Daniel Coffield and Kevin Smalley for their large mixed media installation piece, Home Sweet Home, first place; Chelsea Blackerby for her large mixed media installation, Fountain, second place; and Aubrey Learner for her oil on panel, A Game of Mutualisms, third place.
Without doubt, Coffield and Smalley earned their top prize. The pair have created a hugely complex work, with sounds, lights, videos and the kind of obsessive attention to detail that always makes an artwork more interesting.
Basically, Home Sweet Home consists of a ''haunted house'' sitting atop a meticulously landscaped hill.
''We incorporated film and sound throughout the house to grab the viewer's attention and to create an illusion between the organic sculpture and the media, because the media is always a kind of flat structure, and incorporating it into sculpture gives it better perception,'' Coffield said.
Both artists used to work two dimensionally, but have recently discovered the joys of 3-D.
''Textures that we wouldn't have been able to think of, you can find everywhere when you work in three dimensions . . . '' Coffield began.
'' . . . And you're able to rearrange it and give it a different scale,'' Smalley finished.
Smalley took some of the video footage at a cemetery in Stow, where the two artists live.
''Kevin and I are always trying to get people to look in different places,'' Coffield said.
''And we like to recycle,'' Smalley added. ''A lot of this is just redistributed material. The Styrofoam is from Chez Del, which gives us their used packing material.''
Their prize-winning work is a precursor to much larger pieces, one of which will be a central feature of Haunted Artspace, a spooky seasonal fundraiser for Summit Artspace being held Oct. 30 at the Exchange Street building.
''We're building a haunted tree as a walkthrough installation for the Halloween party,'' Coffield said.
''And we're also building for First Night Akron a large snow globe,'' Smalley added. ''That will be on exhibit at the Akron Art Museum.''
While the Stow artists' work plays with our perceptions, other prizewinners play with our ideas, such as Blackerby's second-place winner, a large, plumbing-oriented installation.
Blackerby's Fountain is a baroque play on Marcel Duchamp's more infamous (and pared-down) Fountain, which consisted of a urinal hung on a wall. And like Duchamp's piece, ideas can be read into Blackerby's installation.
It's filled with white painted sculpture, vessels and china. In fact, it's so full that it spills its contents onto the floor.
Duchamp's work, which has been called the most influential of the 20th century, has spawned an overflow of ideas, creations, followers and movements — many more than even he may have anticipated.
The idea of found objects behind the Fountain has been filled — and then some. It's time to move on to something else.
Learner's work, A Game of Mutualisms, is part of a series of paintings that deal with hypothetical, future realities.
Learner, who's a biology major at the University of Akron, said she began toying around with the idea of humans manufacturing nature.
''For instance, we have these gardens in which we approach nature, but it's not real nature,'' she said. ''This is about how we manipulate relationships between animals and nature and us. . . .
''We fertilize the garden because it makes it beautiful, more productive, even though it often harms the environment,'' Learner said. ''It's really a conundrum. Do we want to feed people or do we want to save the planet?''
Free workshops will be held in conjunction with the exhibit:
• Oct. 18 — Art from Found Objects with Gwen Waight.
• Oct. 24 — Pinched and Pulled Totems with Beth Lindenberger.
• Nov. 8 — Looking Closely at Trees with Ardyse Mund.
The workshops start at 1 p.m. To register, e-mail psargent@neo.rr.com.
Details:
Show: Fresh & Spooky
When: Noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Nov. 8
Where: Summit Artspace, 140 E. Market St., Akron
Admission: Free
Information: 330-376-8480 or www.summitartspace.org
Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.
Halloween has become such a big deal that it seems to have usurped at least one of the roles traditionally accorded to Christmas: It's become the time we get in touch with our inner child.
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