Contemporary art is baffling, at times, rejecting most tenets ofmodernism, including serious nature, social detachment and visualformalism. A new contemporary art exhibit from Delta Axis atMarshall Arts not only encourages participation, it demands it. Theexhibit is called Action Packed, and the artist involved providedart to live up to the name.
Artist and University of Memphis faculty member Cedar Nordbye isthe curator of the exhibit. The idea behind Action Packed isgetting people involved in art. He said he wants the community andeven the business world thinking in a more artistic way.
"The idea is to expand art into the way we live our lives," hesaid.
"Steward-Mart" is an art project by Anne Beffel. She takes trashmaterial and converts it into a decorative or usable piece uponrequest. For her, the project is about function and form. She saidit is challenging to fill the orders requested from her fromdiscarded material. Some simple examples of orders she took wouldbe rings and bracelets, but she receives much more interestingorders as well, like a chartreuse living room couch that canconvert into a bed, a writing desk and a pantry.
A piece she had on exhibit, "Fix My Double Chin," was a requestasking the same thing. Beffel used a metal lady's cart with wheelsand attached a medicine cabinet to the frame. At first, Beffel wasgoing to gray out the area where a double chin would show.
"I realized that if I left it on the floor, everyone who lookeddown at the mirror would have a double chin," she said.
Kirsten Strom is an art historian who was doing anagrams foropening night. Chance and word games were popular in the Victorianera, she said. She breaks names into vowels and consonants toproduce new ones, which are on display at the exhibit. She'spracticed enough to produce anagrams quickly.
"I've gotten pretty fast. I can do one in about five minutes,"she said.
"Here and There" is an active piece by Kevin Hamilton. A redlight is set in a wall and blinks by timer every hour. On the otherside of the wall, another red light is activated by phone callsfrom Hamilton. Standing at the end of the wall, both lights can beseen. He tries to synchronize the lights to flash at the same timeno matter where he is in the country while the exhibit is open. Herelated it to watching CNN coverage of Africa or calling someone'scell phone to ask where they are.
"It's about verifying things we can't see and establishingyourself in the world when you are somewhere else," he said.
"Urban Parlor Games" is a piece by Krista Connerly. She broughta collection of games resembling Victorian games. Writing apersonal letter to someone and sealing it in an unlabeled envelopeis "Blind Postman." The unusual factor in this game is that anyonewho writes a letter will pick up a personal letter written by astranger that is addressed to an unknown. Connerly had many gamesthat encourage interaction in city settings.
Miles Wolfe is a student and instructor at The U of M. Heexhibited iron-on shirts, like ones featuring Janet Jackson with anexposed breast and the towers falling. Most of the images hechooses are social or political in nature, and he uses pictures ofhis own paintings on the shirts as well. Normally, Wolfe deals withauthority in his art, but he said this exhibit is cathartic forhim. The topics of the shirts are mostly gender roles, class andrace.
"I wanted to commercialize things that you wouldn't think of ascommercial. Ironing on T-shirts is low brow, but the concepts onthe shirts aren't," he said.
All the pieces in Action Packed are outside the normal for anexhibit, but they invite participation, and the artists involvedsaid they were interested in bringing communities closer. Theexhibit is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays through May 1.Group tours are available with a guide who can explain the artists'intentions.
