Erika Wanenmacher exhibition at Linda Durham Gallery
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Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Aug 6, 2010; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8 OTHER REALS Spirited work grounded in found materials Art Issues MALIN WILSON-POWELL For the Journal Feeling frustrated and disempowered living in a tradition enthralled by rational systems that are bereft of meaning and morality? Erika Wanenmacher’s current exhibition “where have you been? (come to your senses)” is an antidote to this dictatorship of reason. It is also a fundamental shift in her daily practice as an artist. The title of the show, a lowercase question/ answer, does not proclaim, nor protest, nor confront. Wanenmacher’s previous pattern for building her exhibitions has been to tackle a very intense, often thorny topic such as radiation experiments on unsuspecting citizens. This is noticeably different, a sort of soft surrender. While she uses her prodigious ability to focus and hand craft her pieces in a wide array of mediums, there is a refreshing coherence, vulnerability and openness in this new body of work. Titles of past artworks and exhibitions chart a progression from one-way declarative broadcasts of discoveries and actions (“Giant Adobe Ghetto Blaster,” 1985; “Buzz,” 1991; and, “Storyteller,” 1994) to paying attention to her spiritual guides (“I Stole Stealth [Coyote Taught Me],” 2007), and, now, to a new possibility for two-way exchange or mutualism, this show’s primary theme. Walking into the gallery, a visitor is met by a glowing, full-size white silk figure titled “Datura Person (Mutualism/Help One Another).” This sculpture is a conduit connecting earth and sky. The lower translucent body stands firmly on the ground with beautifully detailed, sturdy legs as well as finely articulated hands. The upper body is an oversize translucent trumpet–shaped Datura blossom that opens to the unfurled proboscis of a suspended hawk moth. Wanenmacher’s self-portrait as a “Datura Person” is made with what she calls “stolen boy” technology used by her father and brothers to build elegant balsa wood infrastructures for model gliders and airplanes. The legs and hands are constructed using grids that suggest knee-high Roman sandals, while the outsized Datura blossom and the wings of two hovering moths have graceful, curving lengths of poplar branches used as supports. By building her figures with locally gathered poplar branches, Wanenmacher is adhering to a lifelong commitment to close-at-hand materials and mythologies, thereby always supplementing and infusing European traditions with New World elements. This exhibition is a direct outgrowth of the artist’s fall 2009 “Ditch Witch” show at the gallery, when all of the works were generated from her walks along the Acequia Madre ditch. For the artist, her current bright, white, light-filled show is a physical embodiment of her “ ... INTERIOR landscape, something I had not really manifested in a while, since my work has been (for about the last 30 years) my particular narratives out in the world.” Throughout these three decades, in an era when the art world has been dominated by irony and critique, Wanenmacher has been admirably independent and followed her own unlikely trajectories. This has included an earnest desire to communicate heartfelt concerns for the health of the planet and for her fellow creatures, two-legged and four, reptilian and arachnid. She has boldly explored denigrated OTHER REALS http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=Ol... 1 of 5 5/3/11 5:47 PM
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Review of Erika Wanenmacher exhibition at Linda Durham Gallery
Transcript of Erika Wanenmacher exhibition at Linda Durham Gallery
Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Aug 6, 2010; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8
OTHER REALS Spirited work grounded in found materials Art Issues
MALIN WILSON-POWELL
For the Journal
Feeling frustrated and disempowered living in a tradition enthralled by rational systems that are bereftof meaning and morality? Erika Wanenmacher’s current exhibition “where have you been? (come toyour senses)” is an antidote to this dictatorship of reason. It is also a fundamental shift in her dailypractice as an artist. The title of the show, a lowercase question/ answer, does not proclaim, norprotest, nor confront. Wanenmacher’s previous pattern for building her exhibitions has been to tackle avery intense, often thorny topic such as radiation experiments on unsuspecting citizens. This isnoticeably different, a sort of soft surrender. While she uses her prodigious ability to focus and handcraft her pieces in a wide array of mediums, there is a refreshing coherence, vulnerability and opennessin this new body of work.
Titles of past artworks and exhibitions chart a progression from one-way declarative broadcasts ofdiscoveries and actions (“Giant Adobe Ghetto Blaster,” 1985; “Buzz,” 1991; and, “Storyteller,” 1994) topaying attention to her spiritual guides (“I Stole Stealth [Coyote Taught Me],” 2007), and, now, to anew possibility for two-way exchange or mutualism, this show’s primary theme. Walking into thegallery, a visitor is met by a glowing, full-size white silk figure titled “Datura Person (Mutualism/HelpOne Another).” This sculpture is a conduit connecting earth and sky. The lower translucent body standsfirmly on the ground with beautifully detailed, sturdy legs as well as finely articulated hands. The upperbody is an oversize translucent trumpet–shaped Datura blossom that opens to the unfurled proboscis ofa suspended hawk moth. Wanenmacher’s self-portrait as a “Datura Person” is made with what she calls“stolen boy” technology used by her father and brothers to build elegant balsa wood infrastructures formodel gliders and airplanes. The legs and hands are constructed using grids that suggest knee-highRoman sandals, while the outsized Datura blossom and the wings of two hovering moths have graceful,curving lengths of poplar branches used as supports. By building her figures with locally gatheredpoplar branches, Wanenmacher is adhering to a lifelong commitment to close-at-hand materials andmythologies, thereby always supplementing and infusing European traditions with New World elements.This exhibition is a direct outgrowth of the artist’s fall 2009 “Ditch Witch” show at the gallery, when allof the works were generated from her walks along the Acequia Madre ditch. For the artist, her currentbright, white, light-filled show is a physical embodiment of her “ ... INTERIOR landscape, something Ihad not really manifested in a while, since my work has been (for about the last 30 years) my particularnarratives out in the world.”
Throughout these three decades, in an era when the art world has been dominated by irony andcritique, Wanenmacher has been admirably independent and followed her own unlikely trajectories. Thishas included an earnest desire to communicate heartfelt concerns for the health of the planet and forher fellow creatures, two-legged and four, reptilian and arachnid. She has boldly explored denigrated
OTHER REALS http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=Ol...
1 of 5 5/3/11 5:47 PM
domains of knowledge, especially the nonrational, intuitive realm of magic, gods, goddesses, entitiesand spells. She calls herself a sculptor of elementals — “earth, air, fire and water united by spirit” —and for this exhibition she has created four 3-D glass “persons” by soldering together pieces of foundditch glass. These figures of the four elements are the size of large dolls and are terrifically animatedand marvelously complex in texture.
The all-green glass, earth element “Mandrake/Mullen Person” sprouts Mullen leaves from its neck on abody that seems to pirouette, as if in a ballet. However preposterous it may sound, the clear glass “AirPerson” floats, an effect created by a puffed-out looking belly bag and a bottleneck mouth suggestingan inflatable balloon. Who could have imagined a pudgy, glass Cyclops could be so endearing that youwant to hug it? The fire element “Sunburst Person” –– assembled from fragments of brown, red andorange glass with marble eyeballs — appears to be in full frolic mode while extending a friendly righthand palm up.
The blue water “Ditch Goddess” is an entirely different order of being. A formidable odalisque, she isnot a delightful openhearted glass sprite, but a powerful SHE and a no-nonsense, heavy dutyGODDESS. She exudes the ancient, immutable presence of the Santeria/Yoruba goddess Oshun, sourceof fresh water. Rather than being playful, she is a tough, sexy, difficult character that demandsreckoning. One hand seems to be a dangerous claw and one foot seems to a fin.
As an artist whose 20th century roots are a fearless, punk, do-ityourself ethic, Wanenmacher hasAmericanized the shamanistic legacy of Joseph Beuys and is best considered along with artists KikiSmith, Tim Hawkinson and Fred Tomaselli. Her ambitions are clearly not limited to the arena of art as itis now defined, but to the wide world and its mysteries. In conjunction with her darker 2009 “DitchWitch” exhibition, she opened her “Witch Store” (Ditch Witch – 926 Baca St., No. 6). Used to working inthe privacy of her studio, she made most of the current exhibition with people looking on. More thanever, she’s developing her ideas and constructing her personal narrative far beyond the parameters ofart concerns, and finds her shop an ongoing “forum for me to collect OTHER people’s stories.” Whoknows what Wanenmacher will harvest from such surprise encounters? In less than a year, it hasprofoundly increased her potential for action.
If you go
WHAT:
“Erika Wanenmacher: where have you been? (come to your senses)”
WHERE:
Linda Durham Contemporary Art, 1807 Second St. No. 107
WHEN:
Through Aug. 21
HOURS:
Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
CONTACT:
505-466-6600 or [email protected]
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“Hawk Moth I” is a 6-foot-wide silk, poplar and mixed-media sculpture by Erika Wanenmacher.
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ABOVE: Erika Wanenmacher’s soldered blue glass “Ditch Goddess” is a formidable, no-nonsenseodalisque, rather than a delightful and openhearted sprite.
RIGHT: Erika Wanenmacher created “Mandrake/Mullen Person” by soldering together pieces of greenglass she found along the Acequia Madre ditch.
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COURTESY LINDA DURHAM CONTEMPORARY ART
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