BEYOND/IN WESTERN NEW YORK 2007

The personalized artistic practices of Roberley Bell, David Clayton, and Adam Weekley each originate from their own distinct points of departure and yet, along route, their work crosses into shared terrain and sensibilities. A preference for the imaginative over the real (or a reworking of the real into the imaginative); a sense of whimsy and an expression of sometimes inexpressible longing; a formal language and aspect that is hyper-realized with touches of pop iconography; a tendency to be more earnest than cynical; and a fantastical transformation of landscape are all prevalent and recurring themes in the works of these artists.

Stephanie Rothenberg's interactive piece School of Perpetual Training is installed downstairs in Hallwalls' Cinema. [in Hallwalls Cinema; screenings and performances by Stephanie Rothenberg, Michael Snow, Jeremy Bailey, and Dorothea Braemer.]

Roberley Bell's recent sculptural explorations spring from blobitecture, a current movement in architecture in which buildings adopt organic or ameoba-like forms in their structure. In previous works, Bell has used real flowers in real outdoor landscapes in an overtly unreal fashion, stylizing her topiary so specifically the real would appear artificial and the space between the real and unreal became ambiguous and undetermined. In her current Flower Blob works, she operates on a more intimate or human scale and works entirely with artificial components made to appear natural. It is not that Bell is attempting to convince the audience of the "naturalness" of her sculptures—plastic flowers, novelty birds, and dollar store components are clearly recognizable—but her methodology introduces an organic quality to the patently false. It is a sly cue to the history of human landscapes, reminding one of the overt control mankind has imposed on its environment. At the same time, Bell's artificial landscape—an intensely-controlled situation—remains expansive, open, and suggestive of innumerable potential horizons.

David Clayton's extrapolations on landscape and environment are connected more specifically than Bell to a sense of youthful aspirations and to a personal, romantic mythologizing around rites of passage. They are imbued with humor and optimism, even when these elements are pushed to their extremity. Thus, a cloud form crowned by the flags from a used car lot appears to contain some desultory or pathetic element, until we see it supported (propped up physically and exalted psychologically) by the addition of a wooden armature, which is itself supported by long, metal legs and topped (that is, bottomed) with plastic casters. It is klutzy, adolescent yearning cobbled together from sundry parts but it is tall, it exemplifies its own peculiar state of grace, and it is mobile—so it is simultaneously awkward and imbued with optimism. Clayton's works often appear housed in suitcases (a landscape on the go!), perched on shelves, or extended physically beyond their original form. They also reveal minute details or vignettes within a larger invented environment such that a single work will toy with aspects of macro and micro—smaller details take on added intensity while the larger form reiterates that these fantasy landscapes collapsing youthful desires are portable, movable feasts.

Adam Weekley locates his work in similarly fantastical environments but for Weekley, these landscapes are the exterior realization of interior imaginings and desires. Memory and longing occupy prevalent positions in his work, as mechanisms through which one can attain a sense of solace and connection with others. Utilizing ornate decorative elements and animal symbolism, Weekley constructs allegories that collapse anxiety, loneliness, self-preservation, and healing into a single wash of complex emotions.
His works are often representing a singular perspective that is universally felt—his lushly-realized Hibernation Box (in which someone might comfortably while away the cold and the lonliness) is constructed for one person, though it remains connected (through a "dreaming cap") to multiple private dreams housed in birdhouses. The work may appear to suggest the most alienating of cocoons, while it is simultaneously yearning for the most rapturous and verdant of connections. Weekley's environment is built for the playing out of specific rituals, a fantasy landscape for the realization of our deeper dreams.

Some publications related to this event:
September, 2007 - 2007
October, 2007 - 2007