Improbable Spaces

Painting by Amy DeLap, Sculpture by Andy Jendrzejewski


Amy DeLap, Oh, Pandora!, 1977,  enamel paint and collage on paper

Most 20th Century art has dealt with explorations of the power of aesthetics in a more or less purist way, that is without concern for any recognizable subject matter.  But what do we mean by the word “aesthetics”? 

Let me begin with a simple illustration, just two lines:
 I                   __ 
The first one is vertical.  We can easily perceive and identify with it as a “standing figure”.  Because it is standing, we can also say it is “living”.  The second one is a figure laying down “at rest” or even “dead”.
 T                 A     
In these letters, we have two kinds of architecture. “T” is a column supporting the weight of a lintel.  One could get shelter on either side of the vertical stem.  “A” is a roof with a crossbar to stabilize the roof with a triangular structure. The crossbar creates a second floor and a first floor, which each could contain an occupant. One would easily slide down either side from the top of the roof. Scary!

We could go through the entire alphabet to find such associations that relate to our physical experience. In fact, that’s how most alphabets were invented – through the simplification of pictographs that were based on remembered experience. Our felt experience is based on line, shape, and orientation in the above cases, all of which are either very stable or in balance. 

Let’s look at three letters that have a stronger potential for movement.
 U                   J                  S 
The “U” is in balance like the “I” and “T” above. Its rounded bottom makes it feel like the “U” could potentially rock sideways to lay flat on either side. Or it looks like it has muscular movement. The stems bend upward, and the strength of the vertical lines helped by the white vertical space between them keeps the U stable. Notice I included the space as “a thing”. Look at it. It’s like a round-headed arrow pinning the letter to an unseen base, the imagined surface or line the letter sits on like a piston in a cylinder. 

The ”J” is the least symmetrical letter here with a vertical stem only on the right side. How is it in balance? The curve at the bottom points up to the left to “imply” a line like the U, and also a space pins the curve to the floor keeping the “J” in balance.

The “S” seems to be facing to our right, but it is in balance by countering the curve and opening at the top with one of equal size and weight at the bottom, facing to the left. Though in balance, it is a precarious balance because the center is less defined than we saw with the “U”.  The space locks in the curves on either side to make the “S” a nice curly squiggle that is perfectly stable.  Or is it that the letter’s squeezing the space for stability like a hand on a handle. In either case, the result is graceful stability and a balance of forces between line and space.

Throughout this discussion, in general, I am describing the “felt-form seeing” based on one’s own natural experience. This also is why not all art needs subject matter.  However, the best art that uses subject matter, must also be organized with felt form.  It is felt form that makes it art, not merely the “realism” of it.  

This is a primary key to your pleasure in viewing Amy’s paintings, whether nonobjective or figurative.  They are more complicated than the illustrations above. Color and tonal value relationships, textural variations, shapes, edges as well as special areas chime in to make what seem like simple compositions, become dynamic fields of space and form in movement.  Amy’s spaces are full of motion on the margins, but vast, empty, and sometimes divided into different depths.

Andrew Jendrzejewski, Anasazi, 1980,  wood, paint, cotton batten, taffeta, wire mesh, plaster, and powdered pigments

Andy’s sculptures suggest something more specific, but they remain ambiguous enough to fire the imagination. Nearly all of them are limited by framed, open boxes that sit horizontally. They imply earthworks and were imagined as proposals of earthworks. For instance, a piece called Silencerecalls the medieval gardens he experienced in Italy where he studied for a year.  Another piece recalls the Anasazi Kivas, which are sacred spaces in New Mexico and Arizona. Another, perhaps the remnants of a Vietnamese shrine. They are imagined gardens for meditation. But their emptiness here is palpable, like an empty church, without the music, without the people or the energy in the space during a service. 

But these works are not specific to these associations. They are personal feeling diaries, for lack of a better description.  He began them ten years after returning from Vietnam. They are not for sale.



This show then is about “nothing”, the nature of nothingness, in a way, but is it?  An old Asian proverb presents a question: “What is the essence of a cup?” The answer of course: “The space inside it.”  The wall of the vessel defines it and contains it. This is a classic lesson in art.  Artistically speaking, though, we think of “space” as “something”—actually, an “essential something”. If we think of a dancer, we can talk about the beauty of the dancer’s form and movement, but it is the “stillness” between the movements that sensitively punctuates a dance and drives home the expressive meaning. In music, it would be the “rest”, and in theater the “pause”. In visual art, it is the space, which can be two dimensional or three dimensional and function as a shape, a color, a difference in texture, lightness, or darkness. 

Many of us ask how we can rise above the conflict happening in the world and in our own country. We might be missing the obvious. Meditation, prayer, thoughtfulness, and quietness are attitudes that open our minds like space. 



May we invite you… 

 

First Friday Art Walk 2022

Join friends at three downtown galleries and the Democratic Headquarters for the First Friday Art Walk, May 6.  Venues will be open 5 – 8 pm.  Outdoor music will be provided at the gallery entrance by the duo Grey…matter, Bob Kemp, and Mike Boyer.  They will play clean electric guitar at an acoustic volume between 6 and 7.

Art Space Vincennes LLC, 521 Main will open Improbable Spaces, painting, and sculpture by Amy DeLap and Andy Jendrzejewski.  This is another in a series of exhibitions occurring over the last year that have explored the various directions of the gallery owners’ art careers.  DeLap will show non-objective enamel and collage paintings on paper.  Jendrzejewski will show mixed-media sculptures that originated as concepts for large-scale environmental installations.

Regular gallery hours: Tue – Sat Noon – 5 pm.  Other hours by appointment; call 812-887-6145

Public Sculpture Program and Gallery Shows 2021

The reverse side of an upcoming map of the Public Sculpture Project, including Vicennes’ Historical objects

Map
The fifteenth and sixteenth sculptures are on the way to being installed to complete the second year of the Public Sculpture project. All the works from the project for both years are shown in the image above. Two of them are envisioned images because the works are not yet installed. This image will be the back of a large. folded map showing where the historical sculptures are located, as well as those of the Public Sculpture Project. Next year we will update the map to include the third year’s group also.

 Arts Commission Grant Proposal
The Indiana Arts Commission met to discuss the grant requests, and we feel very positive about what was said about our proposal. We will get the results in June, and they will be publically announced in July.

Sculptures? Where are they?
So far there are nine locations: 

  1. In-MotionEffexor, and Travelogue are at Clark’s Crossing parking area on Fifth and Sixth Streets between Perry and Buntin Streets. 
  2. Truth Inside,“28”, and Uprising are at Culbertson Blvd near the entrance just off Hart and First Streets.
  3.  Ronin is at Third Street and Main.
  4. Courage Under Fire is at Fireman’s Park, on Third Street 1/2 block South of Main. 
  5. Fitzroy’s GuitarAngles and Shadows, and Calibration are at Gregg Park’s East corner (Washington and Niblack Blvd).
  6. Just A Little Peace will soon be installed at the Knox County Visitors and Tourist Bureau near Main and Seventh.
  7. Elli3 (near the Administration Building) and  Abstract 29 (at the entrance of the Learning Resource Center) are along Indianapolis Sreet on the university campus.
  8. Twisted Botanical Wave is at Third and College (at the Art and Design Center).
  9.  Hobbes’ Claw Unsheathed will soon be installed in the park next to Beckes Union.

All the sculptures are for sale.  I have price sheets that are available on request. (Call Andy at 812-887-6145). Consider donating one to a school, the city, or other nonprofit for a tax deduction. Consider one for the backyard of your estate.

One Reply to “ASV Now”

  1. Amy and Andy: The lost year is hopefully over. Marsha and I survived, hope all things went well for you. Please note new email address, Hope to seen you soon.

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