LMCC News
Around Town Events
2008-09 Swing Space Artist Yumi Roth and Workspace Artists Isola and Norzi at Smack Mellon
2008-09 Swing Space Artist Yumi Roth and Workspace Artists Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi are featured in a group show opening Saturday, June 20th, 5 to 8pm, at Smack Mellon.
Beauty Underfoot curated by Jeanne Gerrity Adriana Farmiga, Petrova Giberson, Isola and Norzi, Fawad Khan, Gareth Long, Alison Owen, Mike Quinn, Yumi Janairo Roth, Jen Schwarting, Secret School and the K.I.D.S., Charwei Tsai
Yumi Janairo Roth, Pallet::Paleta (Made in the Philippines), 2005
Apropos of Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage once remarked, “Beauty is now underfoot wherever we take the trouble to look.” His comment suggests not merely that the commonplace can be transformed into art, but that this art has the potential for beauty. The artists in this exhibition take the banalities of life and transform them into poetic statements. The source material for these striking works, ranging from the dust on the floor of the gallery to text from a local newspapers, are rendered virtually unrecognizable by the artists' aesthetic commitment.
The artists in Beauty Underfoot synthesize every moment of our daily experience, creating a sense of the sublime that paradoxically hovers between an extreme connection and a highly removed detachment from its derivation. Each work exists as a testament to their ability to mutate the quotidian into the lyrical. However, Beauty Underfoot goes even further, challenging the viewers to move beyond the aesthetic object, reviewing and confronting its source. When examined more closely, the works refer to mundaneness, hardship, and even injustice without any didacticism. The artists do not shy away from reality, but nor do they allow it to eclipse their creativity. The works in the exhibition ultimately transcend the ordinary, transforming it into the extraordinary.
While participating in a residency in the Philippines, Yumi Janairo Roth constructed shipping pallets using techniques associated with local handicrafts. She carves intricate designs in the pallets, and then reintroduced them into circulation. Upon her return to the United States, Roth continued to build shipping pallets from scratch, and in Paleta:Pallet (Made in the U.S.A.), she adorns the seemingly purely functional piece with a mother-of-pearl inlay. Roth’s pallets draw attention to otherwise overlooked objects, which transport goods around the world without retaining a sense of origin.
Staring at the Sea is one manifestation of Isola and Norzi’s current research into the conceptual relationship between everyday objects and the underwater world as a mental escape space. A lifeguard chair, positioned toward the East River outside Smack Mellon’s window, is intersected with an aquarium full of living sea urchins. Staring at the Sea merges two different attempts to domesticate nature—the aquarium and the beach—in a paradoxical lyrical statement.
Artists’ reception: Saturday, June 20, 5-8pm
Exhibition dates: June 20 – August 2, 2009 Hours: Wednesday-Sunday, 12-6pm
Smack Mellon 92 Plymouth Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 718 834 8761
