Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance, Nov. 22 - Dec. 20, 2024, Denler Gallery, University of Northwestern—St. Paul, St. Paul, Minnesota

Work Life Balance presented recent photographs and sculpture that study and imagine a range of subjects from deeply personal narratives to familiar architectural elements. Central to the exhibition was the theme of mortality and its complex relationship to animate and inanimate objects.

During the last week of the exhibition I posted notes about the works on Instagram. Below is the collection of notes that communicate my thought processes, decision-making, and reflections.

Monday. Dec 16, 2024

Work Life Balance is up through the end of this week – closes on Dec 20. The namesake of the show is this diptych “Work Life Balance.” The two slightly different views of the same scene depict a condensed collection of objects (some found, some fabricated) removed from the flow of modern life. Drawn from my practice of making table arrangements of images and objects, each object sits in the sun for the camera as part of a still life that demonstrates an idea of work, life, or balance. Conversely, each also communicates the natural antonyms of play, death, or imbalance. Altogether, the double view of objects which are printed on cotton, a fabric of everyday life and a material loaded with history in America, present a density of the material world that is rich with emotional, arbitrary, and temporary values. Gold push pins keep them on the wall – pedestrian objects painted to look and feel expensive.

I intended to make one print and couldn’t decide on which view. After polling some trusted people which ended in a tie, I choose to make the pair one piece. Written into most any photograph is the idea of the doubletake; to look again, to recollect, to collect again. There is also a third view of the still life in the show. A small, color print of it from an oblique angle is hung on the opposite wall next to “Xs for Eyes.” The oblique view reveals some of the process of how the diptych was made and helps to dissolve the illusion of the imagery in the gallery.

Although the exhibition is purposely sparse, the heap of goods that make up so much of our lives is a foundation of the show.

Wednesday, Dec 18, 2024.

Just a couple more days to catch Work Life Balance in the Denler Gallery at the University of Northwestern—St. Paul. I love this sightline of the show. Two different iterations of stair-like sculptures define the physical space of the show. “Ramp/Slide” (in the foreground) is made with off-the-shelf stair stringers, a single piece of scored/snapped drywall, two kettle bells and a length of rebar. From most angles, the sculpture performs a magic trick of balancing upright and from certain angles you can see that it’s propped up and weighted down. The negative space of the form presents the illusion of a set of stairs while the positive space of the form can be read as a slide or a ramp. In either case, gravity is present as something the body resists (by climbing stairs) or something the body overcomes (by sliding down or being airborne).

In the background, “Staircase,” creates an illusion of a very tall staircase that nearly reaches the ceiling. Made of a single piece of Douglas fir and paint, the white steps, at times, align with the white of the walls and momentarily merge into the form of a staircase. It never totally works though. You see its failure and its triumph all at once. From one specific angle, the sculpture is nothing more than a single line “drawn” in the space without reference to stairs at all.

Sharing the wall with “Staircase” is a pair of color photographs. On the left, “Welding for Work and Leisure” depicts my hand balancing for the camera an aluminum form that I “drew” on with a tig welder. In one part, I pushed the limits of the temperature of the materials until the aluminum slightly sagged to lose its original, rigid form. If one looks closely, there is a “X” drawn in pencil on the paper backdrop – drawn so I didn’t have to guess where to place objects being photographed. The title of the print is also title of the welding class where I relearned welding. Big props to you welders out there! Among many components, welding is the careful management of shielding your work from oxygen. On the right, “Office Plant” captures one of my office plants pressing itself against the window towards more light. Its linear leaves form a sort of “X” shape which is a graphic constant throughout the show. (See my first post for the show for more on that). Any plant is a demonstration of photosynthesis which, many of you may know, is the translation of sunlight into oxygen. Total natural magic. I guess both prints are about smothering and breathing in a roundabout way. 

Friday, Dec. 20, 2024.

Work Life Balance closes today. I spent good time in the gallery earlier this week making proper documentation pictures. Here is a selection of them. Dang, I’m happy with this show and grateful to Joe Smith for the opportunity!

Central to the exhibition is the piece “Time Signature” and the gestural mark of an “X” that guided me through much of the making of the work (image 10). To make this piece I appropriated the hospital emergency room intake form my brother, David, signed on the day of his death in October 2018. The print is the exact scale of the form – no bigger, no smaller – so to experience it in the gallery like seeing the actual form. I digitally erased everything from the form except for his “signature” which he penned under acute distress. This artwork is also part of a long-term project, Syncopate, that works through the material and emotional aftermath of his untimely departure. In some ways, “Time Signature” is a tabula rasa in my studio practice. After his death, how I approach working and how I think of materials shifted greatly. I “paired” this piece with Sam Johnson’s “Spherical Jar” which kind of reads as an urn, but more importantly, it reads as simple a vessel in the primary form of a sphere. Something celestial about his piece to me. That it is wood fired is significant. The become its final form, the jar absorbs the heat and ash of the firing process. My brother was cremated and ultimately his final form was ash – materially the same element that completes Sam’s jar. I’m so thankful to Sam for his willingness to collaborate on this element of the show.

Thanks for reading along as I posted details about the show.