Contemporary Art & Artists: ARTS 1001 Blog

Millions of Innocent Accidents was designed around the theme of contemporary consumer culture and its excesses, exploring what will be left over when we are no longer here. Using a variety of materials including, ink, paint, graphite, beads, fur, insulation foam, flowers, doll parts, records, masks, magazines, books, paper, a set of Mickey Mouse ears, bottles, a television, bone, marker, axes, glass, and video, the exhibit featured several collages, paintings, and sculptures that created a contemporary scrapbook. The space itself was dimly lit, which created an almost post-apocalyptic feel among the works created from discarded consumer materials. It was difficult to get an accurate count of the number of pieces contained in the exhibit because, at times, it was hard to find where one piece ended and another began. For example, there were different sculptures placed on top of one another, appearing as a unified piece.

This theme of consumer culture is clearly conveyed in the work, There is a ‘We’ (2006-present). The piece was a collection of about 80 to 100 framed drawings, paintings, collages, and videos that manipulated and distorted images of culture, yet rendered them still somewhat recognizable. For example, one piece featured a dollar bill painted black except around George Washington’s face, which itself was painted over with a different color. Another featured a magazine cover with all identifying information scratched out with black marker. However, not every piece communicated the theme clearly. Earth Mass with Dead Deer Bones (2008) was a large sculpture created from bones, cotton, fur, plastic flowers, and sticks. While the piece had presence and was visually interesting, it seemed to be focused on items of nature, rather than consumer items.

The works that made up Unconventional Wisdom were inspired by the missteps of the administration of George W. Bush, namely the ongoing war in Iraq, as well as the atmosphere of fear-mongering that is present in modern culture. Although the exhibit was designed around this central theme, it also was a showcase for the works of Ruthann Godollei and Mike Elko, who have very different styles. The exhibition space was filled with about 25 paintings, drawings, and digital prints. The pieces were arranged in a “U� formation, with one wall containing only works by Mike Elko, the opposite wall featured works by Ruthann Godollei, and the middle wall was a mixture of works by both artists.

Time Change 2 (2008) - Ruthann Godollei
Ruthann Godollei used simple drawings of everyday objects to provide commentary on the war in Iraq and its seemingly endless nature. The piece Time Change 1-3 (2008) was particularly effective at conveying this message. It featured three black and white drawings. Each drawing contained three clocks. The first clock was set to 6:00 pm and labeled Washington D.C., Minneapolis, and St. Paul time, respectively. The second clock was labeled Baghdad, Khartoum, and Kabul time, respectively, and set to the corresponding time from 6:00 pm United States time. The final clock in each drawing was a blank clock, set to zero, and labeled ‘Time to End the War’.

Cautionary Tale #2 (Practical Paranoia Magazine) (2004) - Mike Elko
The works of Mike Elko incorporated the style of 1950s popular culture to comment on the presence of fear-mongering tactics in today’s media. Just the basic style of the pieces gets this message across, as the 1950s were the era of McCarthy. One striking piece was Cautionary Tale #2 (Practical Paranoia Magazine) (2004). Designed as a magazine cover, it featured a frightened woman surrounded by headlines such as, “Canada: Can we REALLY trust them?� and “It’s your duty to report your neighbors. It’s so easy… and it’s patriotic.�

I would recommend Unconventional Wisdom to a friend. I thought it was an effective statement of the culture and atmosphere under Bush. Millions of Innocent Accidents you can take or leave. It took me a while to decipher the message of the exhibit and even after I had figured it out, I feel that the exhibit did not do a very good job of conveying it. Some pieces were interesting, but others looked like heaps of trash and not art.