Alison Saar at LA Louver March 8-April 5
Really interesting sculpture show worth checking out at LA Louver by LA artist Alison Saar.
Alison Saar grew up in LA, in Laurel Canyon, received dual degrees from Scripps in studio art and art history and holds an MFA from Otis. After living in New York from 1982-1995 she moved back to LA where she currently lives in Laurel Canyon.
Saar's mother is noted artist Betye Saar, her late father Richard Saar, was an artist and conservator. Her sisters Lezley is an artist as well, and her sister Tracye is a writer.
Saar's work has explored issues of identity, exploring her mixed race heritage and a woman's journey in the world.
In this LA Louver exhibit which runs through April 5, 2008, there are a number of interesting pieces.
Saar's life-size sculptures of women recall the figurative spirit and density of a Maillol (without the preening) or a quality of Gauguin's Tahitian women come to life. Her figures recall larger versions of Oceanic or South American sculptures. The majority of the sculptures in the show are made of wood, and bronze, then covered in ceiling Tin tiles (that recall the ceilings of old bars in NY) that are nailed on, and then shellacked in tar. (Saar's tar-babies, if you will).
There is a totemic quality, a resonance imparted by the sculptures as if they are myth-like. In fact many of the sculptures in this exhibit were inspired by the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone -- the story of why we have seasons and why the barrenness of fall is followed by Spring.
In Bareroot, a woman lies on her side, in a fetal position, her feet dissolving into root-like tendrils, that seem themselves torn from the earth.
In Equinox we have mirror images of a two figures, one light one dark, joined at the feet and attached to the wall, where the tendrils meet one flowing as milk from breasts, the other as juice from a pomegranate ( a women's fecundity/ a women's barrenness?)
The milk tendrils call to mind the figure in Murakami's work that also but where Murakami's female are fetishes of male fixation both sexual and mother-like, Saar's speak to the more existential questions of the female condition.
In Hither (a response or continuation to Saar's last exhibit "Whither"), a life sized woman is covered in moths. The moths which are cooper that has been painted and gessoed are also clustered on the walls leading to and surrounding the sculpture -- although at first one is sruck by the contrast between the light moths and the dark figure -- I found it somewhat ominous in so far as there was a moth in the figures mouth (bringing 'Silence of the Lambs' to mind) and the recognition that moths are far more insidious than say, butterflies
If I challenge myself to question what, if anything is uniquely, LA about Saar's work, or uniquely of California, or of Laurel Canyon -- I would have to fall back on California in general and LA in particular as being a place where people come to invent themselves and where we seem to have a perpetual Spring, where women, in particular must deal with a culture that never seems to get old, and to define who they are as women, mothers, artists as those roles shift or rebalance themselves at any given moment.
All that (and much much more) is to be found in Saar's work. .
Alison Saar grew up in LA, in Laurel Canyon, received dual degrees from Scripps in studio art and art history and holds an MFA from Otis. After living in New York from 1982-1995 she moved back to LA where she currently lives in Laurel Canyon.
Saar's mother is noted artist Betye Saar, her late father Richard Saar, was an artist and conservator. Her sisters Lezley is an artist as well, and her sister Tracye is a writer.
Saar's work has explored issues of identity, exploring her mixed race heritage and a woman's journey in the world.
In this LA Louver exhibit which runs through April 5, 2008, there are a number of interesting pieces.
Saar's life-size sculptures of women recall the figurative spirit and density of a Maillol (without the preening) or a quality of Gauguin's Tahitian women come to life. Her figures recall larger versions of Oceanic or South American sculptures. The majority of the sculptures in the show are made of wood, and bronze, then covered in ceiling Tin tiles (that recall the ceilings of old bars in NY) that are nailed on, and then shellacked in tar. (Saar's tar-babies, if you will).
There is a totemic quality, a resonance imparted by the sculptures as if they are myth-like. In fact many of the sculptures in this exhibit were inspired by the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone -- the story of why we have seasons and why the barrenness of fall is followed by Spring.
In Bareroot, a woman lies on her side, in a fetal position, her feet dissolving into root-like tendrils, that seem themselves torn from the earth.
In Equinox we have mirror images of a two figures, one light one dark, joined at the feet and attached to the wall, where the tendrils meet one flowing as milk from breasts, the other as juice from a pomegranate ( a women's fecundity/ a women's barrenness?)
The milk tendrils call to mind the figure in Murakami's work that also but where Murakami's female are fetishes of male fixation both sexual and mother-like, Saar's speak to the more existential questions of the female condition.
In Hither (a response or continuation to Saar's last exhibit "Whither"), a life sized woman is covered in moths. The moths which are cooper that has been painted and gessoed are also clustered on the walls leading to and surrounding the sculpture -- although at first one is sruck by the contrast between the light moths and the dark figure -- I found it somewhat ominous in so far as there was a moth in the figures mouth (bringing 'Silence of the Lambs' to mind) and the recognition that moths are far more insidious than say, butterflies
If I challenge myself to question what, if anything is uniquely, LA about Saar's work, or uniquely of California, or of Laurel Canyon -- I would have to fall back on California in general and LA in particular as being a place where people come to invent themselves and where we seem to have a perpetual Spring, where women, in particular must deal with a culture that never seems to get old, and to define who they are as women, mothers, artists as those roles shift or rebalance themselves at any given moment.
All that (and much much more) is to be found in Saar's work. .
Digg
Delicious
Reddit
Newsvine
Furl
Fark
Google
Spurl
My Web
BlinkList
BlinkBits
Connotea
Feed Me Links
Shadows
Simpy
Stumble Upon
Link Roll
Blog Marks
Facebook