Christina Bickhoff-Benjamin, Contributor
Tiffany Recas
COULD YOU bear to see the world through the eyes of your peers? The Super Plus Under 40 Artist of the Year Competition is at the Mutual Gallery ... I challenge you to enter their worlds.
Although Keisha Castello's work centers on quite common subject matter, it walks away from the word 'ordinary'. She explores topics like 'Self-Protection' and 'So Long a Story' with a more 'surgical' air. Castello's paintings all include bone structures from different sections of the human body.
Once the viewer becomes acquainted with the presence of human bones in Castello's artwork, the paintings become rather ingenious creations. 'Let me Speak' depicts words trapped within the bone structure of the 'voice box', which is itself ensnared between two walls that oppress and squeeze the bone.
Another painting, 'Expectations', displays an unbroken, unpunctuated poem expressing what could only be raw discontent. The words, which are scraped in layers atop other expressions, deliver a feeling of being cut by disappointment. With her pieces, Castello introduces a world where hopes are left incomplete and unpunctuated...where reality scars, and self-exploration cuts down to the bone.
INVESTIGATING THE SELF
Ebony Patterson literally left me speechless. Yet, language is at the corner stone of all her pieces. Patterson explores the relationship between speech and identity, examining female gender via common Jamaican curse words. She uses 'Pussy Claat' to depict the feminine origin of these Jamaican slang words. The paintings feature detailed studies of her own body, underlining a search for cultural identity within herself. She certainly makes the phrase 'beautiful in your skin' a truth- 'Untitled I from the Skin Series', is a light-fixture made of faux human skin. In the words of the artist herself, "Self is a pertinent theme throughout my work". Patterson's artwork is so honest that it may seem disturbing to the inexperienced eye.
Kereina Chang Fatt has focused her work around the concept of 'loss'. She explores and questions herself through her work, which asks the viewer to look closer into the elemental aspects of life. She bases her work around organic images, to which are attached implications of biological origin. Works like 'cradle' suggest the very beginning of life occurring at a cellular level, breaking down the 'self' into its most unrefined form. Chang Fatt presents us with an unapologetically basic exploration of humanity.
BETWEEN LAYERS
Tiffany Recas's work deserves multi-layered recognition...literally. Her creations include layers of glass upon which she has illustrated her stories, producing a three-dimensional effect. 'D.O.B.- A Letter from Sankina' is a fascinating piece that displays the profiles of two people drawn in ink, and super-imposed over what looks like a sperm cell. It also shows a date of birth, and a youthful, if not naïve, account of the 'infant's' thoughts. There is no baby- only dates, and figures. The work does not suggest 'birth'. 'Abortion' seems more fitting. Recas' compositions give the effect of spying through a 'looking glass' at pieces of someone's life. Her work communicates with you and forces you on a journey of self-exploration.
Oneika Russell uses the figure of Aunt Jemima to delve into the realm of self-identification. It seems to represent the struggle of the minority in a European world. The figure of Aunt Jemima, who represents the stereotypical Black homemaker, fades into the background and appears shrunken next to the figures of other characters in the works.
QUESTIONS
"Identify the terrorists, hypocrites and prostitutes. Take away the innocent and pure in heart. Who are the users of weapons of mass destruction?" These are the kind of questions that artist Christopher Iron throws at viewers. His pieces tackle issues of environmental destruction and societal 'suicide'. With his sculpture, 'Missing the Point', he delivers a direct stab at the public. The piece shows tables and statistics from wars and other world events. Another piece called 'Marine Service Men' is a mixed media statue of a soldier, complete with machine guns for hands, a mechanical body, huge shoes to fill, and an extremely erect penis. Iron's work is very cheeky, yet surprisingly moving.
The contest winners were released August 7, 2005. The results were no great surprise: the jury chose the only artist bold enough to shock them, and the public chose the one that managed to touch their hearts. The jury prize went to Ms. Ebony Patterson, and the public prize to Ms. Tiffany Recas. Congratulations, you have become winners among winners.
Review of The Super Plus Under 40 Artist of the Year Competition
