ART: Finding artistic value in the everyday

By April Amadon/amadona@gnnewspaper.com
Greater Niagara Newspapers

February 13, 2008 02:22 pm

— Knitting needles, barn animals, a toaster, a blender — all everyday objects.
But could they be art?
“Everyday Splendor: Use What You Have,” the Carnegie Art Center’s first exhibition of 2008, features works by artists who have created something new out of commonplace objects.
“It’s going to be things that people would never consider in the context of art,” said Lynn Lasota, program manager at the Carnegie Art Center.
The exhibition is guest-curated by Baltimore-based Joanna Raczynska, who gathered works by five artists from the United States and abroad who use everyday materials in new ways.
The opening reception will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the art center, 240 Goundry St., and the exhibition will be on view through April 5.
Much of the art is interactive. Artist Kelly Dobson builds what are called “emphatic machines,” making interactive pieces out of home appliances. Dobson’s piece “Blendie,” for instance, is a modified, voice-controlled blender.
“She’s adapted these with different kinds of voice recognition software,” Raczynska said. “Visitors can speak or sing to these objects and interact with them. They sort of take on a different life. They sort of have personalities now.”
Dobson also contributed a modified toaster, iron and sewing machine.
Visitors can also interact with “The Apparatus for Orchestral Missing,” a piece by artist Laure Drogoul, the artistic director and founder of the 14Karat Cabaret at the Maryland Art Place. The piece includes yarn and knitting needles that have been fitted with contact microphones.
“Visitors start knitting, they’ll be able to actually create sounds,” Raczynska said. “If there are more people knitting, it sort of creates an orchestral sound.”
The exhibition will feature videos, with several monitors and a projection on the gallery wall. Polish artist Igor Krentz, who has shown work in Paris and London, has compiled six of his “White Wall” videos, which document the artist alone in the studio. The videos will run alongside Krentz’s reconstruction of 1895 Polish TV broadcasts documenting the Solidarity movement.
The video “Once Upon a Time,” by German video and film artist Corinna Schnitt, introduces the barnyard to the domestic space, bringing animals like llamas and geese indoors.
Scott Puccio, a Buffalo native and the only artist to have shown in the Buffalo area before, will exhibit “Films About Buffalo,” a collection of 101 silent short films shot in and around the city.
“(Visitors) can come and go from the exhibition, and every time they come back they can see something different,” Raczynska said. “It’s not a quick exhibition to go through. There are only five artists, but each of those artists has at least one very deep sort of work, if not more.”
Lasota hopes the media works will appeal to many people.
“Each different exhibit brings in different kinds of people, depending on their areas of interest,” she said. “It’s important to bring (the media arts) up to Niagara County ... to bring people from Erie County up here, and also to give people in this area exposure to different kinds of contemporary art.”
Raczynska, who was media arts director and curator at Buffalo’s Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center from 2002 to 2006, hopes the exhibition will inspire people.
“I’m hoping audience members visiting the exhibition will be inspired to look at their everyday life a little differently and find inspiration in everyday objects,” Raczynska said.
IF YOU GO
• WHAT: “Everyday Splendor: Use What You Have”
• WHERE: Carnegie Art Center, 240 Goundry St., North Tonawanda
• WHEN: Opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday; exhibition then runs through April 5
• MORE INFORMATION: Call 694-4400 or visit www.cargengieartcenter.org

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