Compelling pieces at the Nash
Piece #1
One piece that caught my attention immediately was Douglas Argue's untitled piece from 1993. I was initially drawn to it because the human figure appeared to be stuffing his/her face with something that appeared from a distance to be spaghetti. This made me laugh, and I went in for a closer look. I realized as I neared the drawing that it was not at all spaghetti that was in the figure's mouth, but the head of a small, orange, four legged hoofed animal with the rest of the body sticking out....
this startled me...
..then some other odd things began to pop out. For example, the figure seemed vaguely like a toddler based on the proportion of the head to the body. The figure was naked, and the color of the skin varied in 5 or 6 tones throughout the body as if it were many races, or even no specific race at all. The eyes of the character were intently focused on the body of the stuffed animal sticking out from his/her mouth. The most confusing element of the picture was perhaps the stick that the child held out in its right hand. Attached to the stick was a string tied to a donut shaped object. Another "toy" perhaps, albeit not a very amusing one.
What message does Argue's painting hold? Not a clue. But if the figure was indeed a child with very lame toys, I can't help but feel concern for why any parent would allow their toddler to stand with the head of a stuffed animal in his or her mouth. Perhaps thats what idle children do...
Piece #2
I really liked Sandra Menefee Taylor's mixed media piece called "Doll" from the late 1970's/early 1980's. The central figure of the picture is a hazily outlined dress, a very classic doll's dress with a short skirt and puffed cap sleeves. The dress had a very aged look with tabs atop the shoulders to suggest a paper doll dress. There was also odd white treatment applied to the collar of the dress that seemed like melted lace. A closer look at the content of the dress revealed faded sentences and pictures that one might find in a 1950's grammar book for children with phrases about Dick, Jane and the dog, Spot. Phrases like, "Jane wants a house. Find a house for Jane." seemed to subtly reinforce traditional gender roles and identities one might associate with the 1950's and earlier. Along the bottom of the piece were four small graphite sketches that appeared to be different stages of metamorphosis from the doll dress to a simple outline of a house. It seemed to imply an inextricable link between girls and the private space of the home. I think the artist was commenting on how out of date this message is by giving the whole piece an aged appearance akin to decades old newspaper.