Anna Sew Hoy: Peres Projects.Part fine art, part folk art folk art, the art works of a culturally homogeneous people produced by artists without formal training. The forms of such works are generally developed into a tradition that is either cut off from or tenuously connected to the contemporary cultural mainstream. , with a dash of bling-bling thrown in, the recent sculptures in Anna Sew Hoy's West Coast solo debut cobble together cobble together Verb [-bling, -bled] to put together clumsily: a coalition cobbled together from parties with widely differing aims Verb 1. materials as disparate as driftwood, perfume bottles, and back issues of National Geographic, all with guidance from the art of ikebana ikebana Japanese art of flower arranging. It was introduced in Japan in the 6th century by Chinese Buddhist missionaries, who had formalized the ritual of offering flowers to the Buddha. The first school of flower arranging in Japan was founded in the early 7th century. . In this Japanese form, flowers ,and leaves are arranged in vessels into harmonic, dynamic compositions--each a mannered attempt to convey an impression of nature. But if ikebana is these sculptures' starting point it's met with echoes of a range of artistic practices (Isamu Noguchi, Howard Finster Jessica Stockholder, David Nash, and Cady Noland) linked together with attitude straight from the nightclub; these works arrive tarted up with jewelry, designer fragrances, and stickers from the indoor swap meet. Calm day (all works 2003) is a good example: a flash/trash puzzle/pretzel made of crushed Sapporo beer cans joined end to end into a dynamic loop-the-loop, accessorized with a gold chain, and spritzed with Odeur #2 by Commes des Garcons, a bottle of which is, conveniently, attached to the piece. In Sew Hoy's strongest sculptures, components and materials seem to invade envelop en·vel·op tr.v. en·vel·oped, en·vel·op·ing, en·vel·ops 1. To enclose or encase completely with or as if with a covering: "Accompanying the darkness, a stillness envelops the city" , barnacle barnacle, common name of the sedentary crustacean animals constituting the subclass Cirripedia. Barnacles are exclusively marine and are quite unlike any other crustacean because of the permanently attached, or sessile, mode of existence for which they are highly over, and feed off one another. Jamaica features a lovely, clumsy buried tree stump made over into a hard-body torso, its clear-coated surface tattooed with a rainbow. This glare queen of the forest perches atop a "Minimal" wood-grain pedestal (its purer, synthetic kin); in front sits a rock, spattered spat·ter v. spat·tered, spat·ter·ing, spat·ters v.tr. 1. To scatter (a liquid) in drops or small splashes. 2. To spot, splash, or soil. 3. with paint reminiscent less of a Pollock than of a vintage Eddie Van Halen guitar. Flat surfaces where the stump's roots and limbs were sawed off are made into atmospheric color fields that suggest the solid stump is a kind of vessel surrounding a Rothkoesque void. The piece is outfitted with a mirror cut into the shape of its silhouette providing a glitzy glitz Informal n. Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: "a garish barrage of show-biz glitz" Peter G. Davis. tr.v. shadow and allowing admirers to check out its backside. There are moments when Sew Hoy's constructions disappoint, when their craft could have been better and the work pushed toward deliberately fine rather than default-funky. A few are reducible to a kind of Urban Outfitters common denominator or a rainy-day project dreamed up by bored reality-TV housemates. But at their best, Sew Hoy's garbage-to-gold combinations reveal a Midas touch for negotiations of generational and cultural gulfs and bridges, as well as that old and familiar--though ever-fresh and surprising--gap between art and life. |
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