Lance Austin Olsen. "patternings for future humans_3" by Debora Alanna

Lance Austin Olsen. "patternings for future humans_3"
July 7, 2019. acrylic, tea, ink and collage on rag paper. size 30" X 44".

Lance Austin Olsen paints the liminal, the space between what seen and heard, what humans feel but rarely can express within their secreted human existence. He paints with prescience, traverses the recognised to make paintings as haptic realisations. With a discreet palate, Olsen’s visual output consistently reflects his sound production.

Olsen’s oeuvre includes a large body of collaborative sound works as performances and recordings, often utilising his paintings and drawings as visual scores (Olsen, et al.). A recent release, Looking At The Mouth That Is Looking At You (Olsen, et al. 2019) was produced by Infrequency Editions using a visual score of drawings Olsen made in response to a friend’s stroke experience. John Luna’s impromptu poetics, my improvisational keyboard and Erin Cunes’ voice interpretations became a collective response to Olsen’s score. Elsewhere Music’s February release, Works on Paper is another intermedia collaboration with artist Gil Sansón. (Sansón and Olsen 2019).

I first wrote about Olsen’s work shown in Victoria’s Polychrome Gallery, Road to Esperance (Alanna, Lance Austin Olsen "The Road to Esperance" 2011). At that time, I described his paintings as a “dream time symbologic mapping”, comparing him to Jasper Johns (Scarlato 2010) , as psychogeographer (Alanna, Lance Austin Olsen "The Road to Esperance" 2011). Katherine Harmon (Katherine Harmon 2009) described this term as “inner space” (Scarlato 2010). A consummate, contemporary flâneur [i],[ii] (Sannicandro 2008) a profound yet demure artist that traverses the contemporary paths of existence in undisclosed spheres, Olsen reads and interprets humanity’s transience. He manifests his findings through his sound production and visual outputs, combinations of both with collaborations (Sansón and Olsen 2019). In Baudelairian terms, Olsen can encapsulate the “moral and aesthetic feeling of their time” and meanwhile, “creates (…) a personal originality” (Baudelaire 1998).

Olsen’s current visual tour de force continues to expound psychogeographic expertise with symbologic mapping through commanding connotative geometry. Shapes, saturation, brush strokes are transformative through his signature iconography. These treatments are markers, lead us through a dense psychologic geography that features the distribution, constituent elements of our humanity. Olsen translates and disseminates metaphysic comprehension, champions human existence through works which engage timelessness that only the present moment can endure. Olsen’s paintings capture what refuses to be marked by a specific location or time. His works grasp and delineate points of our internal journeys.

"patternings for future humans_3" (7 July 2019) encompasses Olsen’s distinctive tea and ink washes, discharges his gusto as a survey of the senses with these sumptuous exploratory marks. With an absence of linear perspective, this work can be historicised, related to Impressionist techniques, environments [iii] Olsen He enlarges our perspectives, draws us inward through this grand work on rag paper, 30 x 44”. An imposing force of black and finally, assertive abstract painted and collaged shapes over the washes, like a sinister Monet sunrise (Monet 1872), where the sun as object and its environment interpenetrate[iv] (Healey, et al. 2016) he declares the patterning or stimulus for understanding how to negotiate our futures through a trio of geometry.

Far left, overhanding the distant wash, akin to a murky Monet sky suspension (Monet 1872), awash with the delicacy of ephemeral light, a protruding folded and cut mid-grey paper, collaged, unpacks, sources simpler shapes to its right. A sliced rectilinear in cloudy white, sharply cut with a precise curve removing the bottom right corner of the rectangle is central. A wavering but basic square dances in an earthy yellow ochre, on the farthest right of the viewer. All shapes touch each other charily, like Impressionist paint strokes that are enlarged [v] [vi]  (Healey, et al. 2016, 38) and appear sentient, aware of each other. This conscious seems responsive because the shapes maintain a semblance of a connection to their perceived origins.

Proclamations of how we attempt to organise thoughts are placed at an eye-level across bulges of black in various degrees of saturation. Their placement alludes to our vision. Wider than the exactitude of yellow, white and grey, the background wash layers with the despotic blacks are contrasting resonances of those precise overlaid shapes. The background washes hum; the blacks foster the impression of hefty aftershocks, memories.

Olsen calculates perplexity, articulates suggestive strategies to negotiate our futures as solid arrangements of angles, lines as objects as companionable wiles. He projects how we relate within our enigmatic systems as geometric ruses.[vii] Like his collaborative sound works, initiating then orchestrating and finally editing multiple responses to what becomes a supranatural poignancy as a compilation, “patternings for future humans” gathers immense ideas into the minimal sublime. Olsen shows us that we are the problem and have the solutions through our bonds of variable readings of sweeping opaque veils and dark imminence depicted in the background. He presents objects of distinct variations of thinking that enunciates abstract thought patterning which embodies presence, edifies our indeterminacy. Sound advice.

#LanceAustinOlsen #GilSansón #JohnLuna #ErinCunes #DeboraAlanna #ElsewhereMusic #InfrequencyEditions

Debora Alanna

Montreal Quebec, July 2019

Bibliography

Alanna, Debora. 2013. "Images from Sound: Garden of Cellular Indicision." By Christine Clark, Phillip Willey Debora Alanna. Victoria BC: Polychrome Gallery.

—. 2011. Lance Austin Olsen "The Road to Esperance" . Edited by Efren Quiroz. April 13. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://exhibit-v.blogspot.com/2011/04/lance-austin-olsen-road-to-esperance-by.html.

Alanna, Debora. 2013. "Whisper of the Future." In Images from Sound: Garden of Cellular Indicision, by Christine Clark, Phillip Willey Debora Alanna. Victoria BC: Polychrome Gallery.

Baudelaire, Charles. 1998. "The Painter of Modern Life." In Art in Theory, 1900 - 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, by Paul Wood, Jason Gaiger Charles Harrison, edited by Paul Wood, Jason Gaiger Charles Harrison, 494. Oxford, England: Blackwell.

Healey, C. G, P Kozik, L Tateosian, and J Enns. 2016. Combining Perception and Impressionist Techniques for Nonphotorealistic Visualization of Multidimensional Data. Edited by Christopher G. Healey. Prod. Vision Science Society 16th Annual Meeting, St. Pete Beach, FL) 16, 12, (2016), 188. Journal of Vision (Abstract Issue. Raleigh, North Carolin: North Carolina State University. Accessed July 13, 2019. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fa54/983a0cd28c3ad79f6c1dcbd98cc06a215230.pdf.

Katherine Harmon, Gayle Clemens. 2009. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press.

Monet, Claude. 1872. Impression Sunrise / Impression, Soleil Levant. Musée Marmottan Monet , Paris . Accessed July 13, 2019. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monet_-_Impression,_Sunrise.jpg.

Olsen, Lance Austin, John Luna, Debora Alanna, and Erin Cunes. 2019. Infrequency Editions. Edited by Lance Austin Olsen. John Luna, Debora Alanna, Erin Cunes Lance Austin Olsen. May. Accessed July 12, 2019. http://infrequency.org/?p=1055.

Sannicandro, Joseph. 2008. The Legacy of Situationist Psychogeography: Its Relational Quality and Influence on Contemporary Art. Noise Economy. Accessed July 2013, 2019. https://soundpropositions.com/2013/02/04/the-legacy-of-situationist-psychogeographyits-relational-quality-and-in%ef%ac%82uence-on-contemporary-art/#comments.

Sansón, Gil, and Lance Austin Olsen. 2019. Elsewhere Music Bandcamp. Edited by Lance Austin Olsen Gil Sansón. Yuko Zama. February. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://elsewheremusic.bandcamp.com/album/works-on-paper?fbclid=IwAR1dThG1qFDNGNC9i9DpZuZANLSVSfUycHt2rhqHQgEuXivNWr1qUoLaSII.

Scarlato, Jonathan F. Lewis and William. 2010. Review of "The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography". Edited by Katherine Harmon with Gayle Clements. AGS Library. Accessed July 12, 2019. https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/view/66/124.

Venturi, Lionello. 1941. " "The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism." ." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1, no. 1 34-45. Accessed July 13, 2019. doi:10.2307/426742.

‘Psychedelia’ by Philip Willey.

Louanne Mah

The dynamic duo, Irma Soltonovich and Efren Quiroz, plus Martin Bachelor, have done it again. This time it’s psychedelia, symbol of the Sixties. A time of great promise or mass hallucination.

Things happened fast in that decade. Beatniks morphed into Hippies at lightning speed helped along by rock music and the sudden availability of drugs. From San Francisco to London young people were turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. Love and Peace was the mantra of the moment and LSD was the key to the universe opening visions of Shangri La. Nothing was real.  

LSD was first made by Albert Hofmann in Switzerland in 1938 from ergot and found to have possibilities as psychiatric medication. The exact mechanism is still not fully understood but it is thought to cause glutamate release in the cerebral cortex i.e. your brain lights up like a pinball machine. The CIA thought it might be useful for mind control and they tested it in the 50s on servicemen and students without their knowledge. Native American mystics had known about peyote for a long time. Aldous Huxley did some mescaline in 1954 and wrote ‘The Doors Of Perception’ based on his experience but it wasn’t until the 1960s that LSD somehow found its way into the counterculture where it proved immensely popular.

Tripping had a spiritual dimension in the beginning. There was an innocence to it. Trips could be good or bad depending on the mental state of the tripper and the quality of the product (stay away from the brown acid). It opened the doors to another world. Some of us thought we could fly. Owsley Stanley, who made the first big batch of acid, was a man on a mission. Timothy Leary, a psychology professor at Harvard, was a big influence. President Nixon called him ‘the most dangerous man in America’.  Did the Love Generation represent a sea change or was it just media hype? We still aren’t sure.  It certainly broke down a lot of barriers.

Philip Wiley 

San Francisco had Flower Power which was partly a reaction to the Vietnam War. In London it took off mainly in the form of fashion thanks to boutiques and a proliferation of young designers like Ossie Clark.Image became important. As the underground got absorbed into the mainstream Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull became the new pop royalty. Beautiful people were everywhere.

It only lasted a few years. There was the Summer of  Love, Haight Ashbury, the Sergeant Pepper album in June of 67 all culminating for many with Woodstock in 69. There was also Altamont (something very funny happens when we start that number), Manson,hard drugs, kids, jobs, mortgages.  Sixties turned into Seventies. The Rutles put the lid on it with ‘All You Need Is Cash’. But the memories linger and there seems to be nostalgia for the period whether you were there or not.

Nowadays it’s seen as a period of non-stop sex, drugs and rock and roll and it’s starting to fade into myth like Camelot. Those who actually lived through it, as a few of us older folks did, all have our own memories and perspectives, often quite blurry. For some it was a social revolution for others it was unbridled hedonism. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Psychedelic art took several forms. It first appeared as kaleidoscopic mandalas designed for looking at while stoned. Or you could just watch your own hands pulsating. There were album sleeves and head comics (who can forget Robert Crumb’s Mr. Natural and Gilbert Shelton’s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers?) but it’s the posters that stick in the mind. These were made up of brightly coloured shapes and letters that emulated the visual effects of LSD, often advertising happenings or events. They have become icons of the Sixties and they have obviously inspired a lot of participants in ‘Psychedelia’.

Barry Herring

75 artists submitted work to the show so there’s a wide variety of responses and a lot to take in. Some are obviously into the music, some like the art and some clearly enjoy the hallucinogens. So maybe times haven’t changed that much.Who knows…. perhaps some of the participants were being happily conceived around that time and what we’re seeing are the aftereffects?  So if you haven’t tripped out lately groove on down to Martin Bachelor Gallery and get your mind blown.

Martin Batchelor gallery 

July 29th–Aug. 17th. 2017 

Winchester Galleries, ‘Five’. May 2-27th. by Philip Willey.

Vicky Christou was born in Melbourne, Australia and immigrated to Canada in 1969. She is a graduate of the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. Her work exists somewhere between painting and sculpture. She is inspired, she says, ‘by the simultaneous happenings of visual and personal metaphorical dialogues.’

Multiple layers of impasto are protected by a woven textile grid to produce striking 3 dimensional images of light and shade.

Jeremy Mangan was born in Seattle and has spent most of his life in the Pacific Northwest. He studied at PLU in Tacoma also in Munich, Germany and New York. There is something of Rene Magritte in Mangan’s paintings. He uses a realist technique to paint recognizable objects in an unusual context thereby creating improbable landscapes and events.

“My current work explores phenomena: the unusual,
exceptional moments just on the edge of plausibility,
and occasionally beyond.” Jeremy Mangan

He has shown frequently in Tacoma and Seattle and now Victorians have a chance to see his work.

Sean Mills, a graduate of Emily Carr University, based in Vancouver, explores light and transparency using paint and plexiglass. He sees paint as both occupying and containing space. The way his works play with light and shadow makes them appear less substantial than they actually are.

Neil McClelland is from Gatineau, Quebec now living in Victoria where he teaches sessionally at UVic and Vancouver Island School of Art. Of all the artists in this show perhaps McClelland comes closest to having a political agenda. His current interest is the perfectibility of society and his striking, albeit somewhat ominous, paintings capture the current societal unease. 

See:

http://exhibit-v.blogspot.ca/2017/02/neil-mcclelland-at-deluge-contemporary.html

In a lighter vein is Carollyne Yardley who is best known in Victoria for her squirrels, cheeky little critters that appear in her paintings in various disguises. Squirrels and masks have led to her current preoccupation, therianthropy (the ancient belief of shapeshifting, and animal ancestors), and theriocephaly (animal-headed humanoid forms such as the ancient Egyptian gods Ra, Sobek, and Anubis). She has also been collaborating with Rande Ola K’alapa.  Rande is part of a new generation of indigenous artists who are open to cross-cultural experimentation. Their show ‘Shapeshifting’ is ongoing at the Fazakas Gallery in Vancouver.

Carollyne is in Venice but her fan club showed up.

It was a lavish opening and very well attended. This is not strictly speaking a group show. There’s no unifying theme and the five artists don’t have a lot in common. That’s not the point. They are all serious, committed and in for the long haul. Their work is finely crafted and Winchester sees a bright future for them. Hence the sub-title FIVE: TO COLLECT. Winchester Galleries are to be congratulated for their forward thinking.

From Polychrome to Xchanges. - Philip Willey April 2017.

Dropped into Polychrome and found Shawn Shepherd looking happy. So he should. He’s been dealing with some healthy sales. Not a huge amount of money by Gagosian standards perhaps but a ringing endorsement of Polychrome and the Kelly Green Collective show ‘100 @ 100’.

The gallery is packed full of life and energy. A vibrant mix of collage and paint.The worksthemselves range from casual and sketchy to heavily worked and give an overall impression of spontaneous unbridled creation. Clearly a lot of quick decision making was involved and the result is averitable cornucopia of striking paintings. 

There’s a lot going on here. Wry comments on art history  Picasso, Gertrude Stein and our own Emily Carr, there are references to pop stars and writers and I think I spotted a few digs at popular culture, hipsters and vegans, drum circles, beards, perhaps evendistressed jeans and Kardashians wearing nude body suits in there too. Or did I imagine some of those things? No matter. There’s certainly a lot of imagery that stays in the mind after leaving the gallery. Green and Kelly obviously had fun making these paintings and it shows.Some of the best pieces haven’t been sold btw.

I stopped in at Xchanges on the way home and I was delighted to find the building as ugly and strange as ever. It hasn’t yet been torn down to build condos. Inside I was met by Sandra Doore who was happy to show me her work mostly based onhandwritten text. I remember another show Sandra had at Xchanges.  I may even have written about it. Amorphous shapes impaled on chrome poles? Some kind of sexual statement? It created quite a stir at the time.

Anyway Sandra bounced back from that and her current show deals with ‘texting and        the effect it has on the human psyche’. She tells me how the show came about. It began she says when she was sending text messages to her son and he kept misunderstanding her. It’s because the tone was missing she thinks. She found she needed to fall back on emojis to show that she meant well. Hence the title of the show ‘Untitled - Lost in Translation III’.

But there’s more to it than that. Sandra finds beauty in being lost. In writing lists of acronyms she found that the words took on their own aesthetic possibilities. So in a sense her work is an exploration of the need to create and the compulsion to communicate ones findings. This of course relates to the times we live in and our dependence on technological means for immediate connection.

 Textese, txt-speak and all the platforms that make a whole new language possible; hashtags Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp have all evolvedby and for compulsive communicators and those among us who feel the need to broadcast a running commentary of our lives. Much like what I’m doing now in fact, but I’ve got a good excuse.

What is texting doing to us?  Well apparently we talk less. Parents talk less to their children and texting has caused quite a few traffic accidents. But we can’t uninvent it so it’s here to stay. Maybe the novelty is wearing off for some people but there is always another generation coming along who have grown up with digital devices. For them cellphones and ipads are perfectly normal,even indispensable, equipment. It will be hard to wean them and harder still to invent a replacement. Anything short of extrasensory perception won’t cut it.

Ever the gadfly I ask Sandra if she uses these tools herself. She admits that she does. In fact she feels she is just beginning her exploration.She is aware of the irony but not of any conflict. Sure a lot of it may be useless babble but these are the times we live in, she says, communicating and belonging are part of being alive. She has a point.

It was an interesting afternoon. Worth fighting my way through the traffic.Roy Green, PJ Kelly and Sandra Doore certainly provided plenty of food for thought. But that’s enough art for today. It’s stopped raining. Time to do some gardening. B4N