|
Art in Atwood inspires students
By Harold John Behling
 Media Credit: scott theisen Freshman Travis Baxter views Joe Aiken’s “Fairwell” art exhibit in the Atwood Gallery. The exhibit opened June 12 and will run through Sept. 25.
|
|
“From the depths of my rubber soles to the tips of my painted, jaded fingernails, I have searched the world, chasing the muse. Considering the muse as having female attributes (traditional in art), I have sought her in all the appropriate places. Well, years have pass and I have never caught her except once, briefly, in a graveyard in New Orleans…” —Joe Aiken.
This is a selection from the passage that greets you as you enter Aiken’s exhibition entitled “Farewell,” now showing at Atwood Center. The selection describes a visit to the famous and historical St. Louis Cemetery in New Orleans where he noticed the fresh etchings inscribed onto famous voodoo queen Mary Lavaue’s crypt.
“Farewell” is an appropriately titled retrospect of the retired SCSU Art Department Chairperson’s work from the 80s and 90s.
The exhibit contains sculptures of wood and metal along with oil stick paintings and other pieces.
One common element that appears throughout several works is the fashioning of roughly cut buildings out of wood. This includes, “Tree Building,” a red brick factory painted onto a wooden block with a smoke stack giving birth to a metal tree, which has ensnared a metal yo-yo.
“Moon over Minneapolis” is like the skyline of a city plucked from the earth and bound tightly in wire like a bundle of firewood.
Three of the buildings extend to the ground to become the unfinished pieces of stick that form legs.
Another extends to create a neck that houses a blue and purple mask with a silver mane.
As a possible explanation for these combinations of urban and rural landscapes the artist explains that he spent 25 years commuting between St. Cloud and Minneapolis, which accounts for a lot of time in between the extremes of the city and rural landscapes.
Another notable feature of the show is the oil stick paintings. “Untitled One”, and “Untitled Two” present the large, swooping, snail-like curve that appears in the background with some variation in “Fire” and also in “Water”. The same feeling of progression is also felt in a series of three paintings starting with “Tornado Stick”.
This kind of interplay between the pieces makes the gallery easier to wander through, making it possible to connect many of the pieces together, to form a single feeling or mood.
Aiken’s art makes you feel like you’ve been missing something when looking at the world we see every day.
His interpretations of nature, and man-made structures are simple, surreal, and bring out the peculiar things in life that we sometimes don’t take notice of. Then again, maybe the artist wasn’t attempting any of these effects, as he says “I just work.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
