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Atwood displays provocative art
By John Behling
Published:
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Media Credit: scott theisen
Jamie Schill, Monica Swant and Carrie Tonkin reflect on Alyssa Wood’s Dysfunctional Vases. Wood’s Porcelain Clay exhibit will be on display through Jan. 3 in the Atwood Ballroom Display Cases.
Currently displayed in the glass case outside Atwood Ballroom is an exhibit that is sure to turn heads and raise questions: a series of elongated and bent tubes entitled “Flawed Vases.”
Another, “Teeth” is a carefully arranged series of tiny spoons peppered with corroded teeth. Yet another is a series of “mechanical” plants.
Just as these provocative images suggest, the story behind the artist’s work is just as interesting as the work itself. Alyssa Wood was influenced greatly by her move to Minneapolis from her native South.
According to her, being an outsider made her more aware of the geography and architecture of the area. Wood was also influenced by the commute between her studio in Red Wing and her home in Minneapolis.
She was captivated by the rolling fields of soy, the glowing Biotech greenhouses and the “silent staleness” of Minnesota in winter. This interest of man’s involvement with nature led to her series of “Mechanical Plants.”
On display is an ear of mechanical corn, a mechanical pea pod and a mechanical pear. These sculptures not only show tremendous care in their accurate shape and texture, but also exhibit the abstract concept of being crossbred with mechanical objects.
For example, a nail rests in the cavity of a pear half, seeming to belong there. The peas in the pea pod look like black, rounded disks held in place by straight black rods.
For these sculptures, Wood limited herself to white, black and gray, giving the plants a dull, lifeless look. These sculptures show “the artificial quality of our attempts to alter nature for our own purposes.”
Another display that takes on the subject of nature is her series entitled “Seed Project.” These sculptures are white seeds or bulbs set in a bed of what looks like black beans. The stark contrast draws out the detail and texture of these re-created natural forms.
Alyssa Wood is currently interested in taking photographs of agricultural architecture, machines and greenhouses. Her work has been displayed both regionally and nationally, most recently at the New Vision Gallery in Marshfield, Wisc., and at the Woman-made Gallery in Chicago. She teaches at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C.
