Beautiful Possibility
Alison Pebworth
Pebworth describes herself as a Neo- Pilgrim. She is a near-earth traveler on a specialized journey to seek, and to found, realize what is lost in America. Beautiful Possibility risks the integrity of picturesque models and theories. Painted on high-realism banners coalescing histories, Pebworth’s personal reconsideration of history’s time and place, interconnecting culture, recalibrates context with intricate whimsy. Complementing the banners, she maps her 2-year journey through points of her entry into narratives. These collected stories are cohesive passages routing and evaluating past and present communal, evolving markers.
The 19th century neurologist George M. Beard first defined what ails us, and called the condition Americanitis, resulting from “a fast way of life.” ([1]) Pebworth’s multiple, amalgamated concepts observe past and present Americanitis. Studying human culture and development, a comparative history of how time has advanced or evolved the pressures and distress that originally created the Americanitis condition, Pebworth devised a survey where participants can offer their contribution to this discussion. Collecting stories about lost or forgotten histories is also an integral dimension of this travelling show. Delighting in extraordinary opportunities for exploration, Pebworth’s itinerant exhibition gains content from interaction. Complete this survey on line, if you missed the Open Space form-filling opportunity.
Past travelling medicine shows peddled elixirs to ease pervasive anxiety, cure Americanitis. Pebworth created her own elixir to enable consideration of the cure. During a final performance, a drink of assorted leaves and blossom tea combined with vodka, poured into a communal oyster shell vessel provided a few with this elixir generating cautious examination of the possibility of transformation from this psychological panacea. Can there be a cure to what ails us? Do we really want a cure? Do we need a remedy? Pebworth’s excursion creates organized questioning.
This work is an evolving rendering, a portrait in the making, and the portrayal progresses with every thought and unearthing that incorporates the texture of past and present possibilities. Pebworth strives to beautify, to exemplify, circulating a surging need to restore our equilibrium, redirect our Americanitis towards the splendour of what is beautiful in our lives. This enquiring nomad promotes wellness and refreshing discovery of future possibilities. Her research into a Beautiful Possibility demonstrates this.
Beautiful Possibility tours the Northern United States after this only Southern Canada exposition. Video Pebworth’s next showcase is at the Missoula Public Library, 1 July – 10 July 2010. You can interact with the Beautiful Possibility through the website: http://www.beautifulpossibilitytour.com/
[1] http://www.beautifulpossibilitytour.com/
Walls of Intrigue and Cabinets of Curiosity
Tracy Nelson
Monkeys. Lots of sock-monkeys, monkeys made of recycled knitwear. Drawings of monkeys. Cabinets of mini-monkeys. Nelson has ardently made and mounted them all the way up the gallery walls, enlarged them to become freestanding primate-like sculptures and highlighted them in fabric wrapped consoles. Zealous projections, these monkeys silently taunt. Like Yasuma polka dots, Nelson’s crafted profusion saturates our vision, creating spectacle.
Disquieting creatures conspicuously seem to gaze at us, censorious, daunting. Gangly, elongated legs and arms, sometimes wrapping other little monkeys mainly dangle. Their frozen expressions frighten, toying with our willingness to think of this collection as entertaining. Nelson does portray some of her creatures humorously. There is playful contortion, diverting hats and funny features to examine. Yet the echoing stares redress the disturbance. Determined, modulated mania from the Walls of Intrigue directs us to the Cabinets of Curiosity. Fuzzy encased cabinetry pads the mechanism for framed vignettes of Nelson’s interacting creations. Monkey antics housed keeps the dynamics relegated, demonstrating nebulous inflections. Handmade, each monkey has integrity, and power to seize our wit.
A robot vacuum with spider-like legs holding pens, when active, obsessively draws on the floor. The critter monkeys. Here, there is a release of craze, a discharge of frantic inclinations.
In The Dancing Monkeys, Aesop describes the mimicking nature of nonhuman primates: “Being naturally great mimics of men's actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers.”([1]) Nelson reverses the roles of monkey and audience, as does the clever story. We are observed; our actions are conspicuously a dance for attention. And as the monkeys in the fable scatter when the nuts are strewn for their consumption, we show our true natures when we are preoccupied with the nuttiness of obsessive acts. Nelson shows us that we are the intrigue, the curiosity. Video
[1] Aesop. Three Hundred and Fifty Aesop’s Fables. Trans. Rev. Geo. Flyer Townsend, M.A. Chicago: Belford, Clark & Co. 1882.
Translation of post above(via http://webtranslation.paralink.com/)
ReplyDeleteAre there items in the law of stupid laws: "an organization of fools, Hengda to equal two-thirds of."
Can anyone offer a better translation???