It was a typically gorgeous afternoon at Headlands Center for the Arts yesterday for their summer open house with plenty of sun and fresh air to be had by all. Blake and I rolled in for a late lunch of delicious sandwiches in the Mess Hall (a Reuben for him, a vegan concoction for me) and then proceeded to stick our heads into every available studio. My brief notes:
- Aideen Barry - A dress held aloft by a ring of toy radio-controlled helicopters, tiny films projected onto a fold-out book filled with drawings, one studio wall repurposed into a homemade green screen. Anxiety cleverly elucidated.
- Nathan Lynch - The entire room set as if it were a stage with ladders, cartoon-like waves cut from wood, a huge inflatable silver pillow, a yoga ball pressed into captivity between two pieces of wood. I know Lynch for his bird decoy sculptures and am interested to see him moving in what seems like a more deconstructed direction, at least in the Headlands Project Space.
- Mark Braunias - Pages and pages and pages of impressively-rendered drawings, almost caricatures, with humorous typed texts accompanying containing snippets of satire and a personal philosophy of the universe. Also larger paintings of shapes suggestive of surrealism, Tanguy, Dali.
- Jillian Conrad - Sculptures made of ephemeral materials and seemingly casually assembled, but with real attention paid to the inherent properties of things like plaster and cinder blocks. She also had a very attractive sand saw.
- Neil LeDoux - LeDoux is the new Tournesol awardee, which means he'll be at Headlands for an entire year, and has apparently decided to devote his time right now to creating images of enormous magical kitty cats. I could not more heartily approve.
- Asud Faulwell - Amazingly intricate, hypnotic paintings that utilize pattern and texture in beautiful ways as Faulwell depicts female combatants from the Algerian War of Independence. He was moving out and only had two works on display, but man they were good.
- Danielle Rante - I liked Rante's works on paper full of thoughtful lines and colors, but the painstakingly-cut webs of paper ladders strung along one side of her studio made me smile even more. Especially loved the scraps of discarded paper on one of her work tables.
- Swintak (pictured above) - Uncertain about the one-name thing, but thought her fog cannons made of repurposed trash cans were pretty cool. Also enjoyed the way she had literally thrown a room up one wall complete with chairs and reading material (including a pamphlet about dry ice).
- Benjamin Levy - Dance improvised with several dinner tables, the audience seated around them as if for a meal, with the action occuring on and near said tables. There was a smattering of cutlery involved too. One of my favorite things all day.
