Elf World: Inneractive Apiecolypse

Speaking of girls pointing cute plastic guns, I saw a paper mache life sized elf on a bison pointing a machine gun that had been colorfully decorated in a zigzag pattern. Attached to her bison was a cart with a tent full of freshly baked apple pies.

I am deeply interested in immersive environments for play and the great panorama of Elf World lured me in. The colors were spectacular and thoughtful, lots of saturation and brightness and textures. The quilt of hexagons and other textures made for a watering hole.

We heard there would be pies for the eating. There were pies inside the cart but no cutlery. A clear sign these were not the pies to be eaten. Amidst our search, Barbara approached us and announced there are pies and tea in the back for the eating.
Her husband Tom was selling souvenirs, you could even get a pattern to make the ply wood structure of the bison.

Feeling under dressed, and like a tourist to Elf World, as I ate my slice of apple pie, I sifted through the colors and textures and observed my surroundings, the variety of American symbols - apple pies, guns, teepees, great landscapes of the west, traditional native american patterns, a contemporary windmill, the bison, a "factory" of elf women on the pie making mission from the gathering of grains, picking the apples to baking them. Suddenly I felt the distance between my food source and the makers of my food in my own everyday.

Nevertheless, to complete my blue-jean wearing tourist experience of this art installation, I had to have my picture taken eating the said pie. mmm mmm



Elf World: Inneractive Apiecolypse
Space 1026

Guns and Chandeliers at Gallery Imperato, Baltimore MD

Gallery Imperato's current exhibit features work by two very different painters: Shannon Cannings and Jessica Dunegan. Both artists have limited their subject matter here and the pairing makes for an interesting contrast. While Cannings' paintings depict plastic toy guns (packaged and unpackaged) executed in smooth and realistic detail, Dunegan's work examines chandeliers and their complex structure in a more subjective and dreamlike fashion. Where Cannings uses oil on canvas applied in the traditional manner to portray familiar children's playthings, Dunegan makes her hanging, luminous objects appear fuzzy and stringy through the use of white resin seemingly encased in a field of reflective black. Along with these, Dunegan displays another variation on her theme: a series of chandelier images seen through filmy colored glass.

Overall, Dunegan's work commands more visual and conceptual interest; its technical complexity and subtle imagery encourage one to linger a bit longer. Cannings' work, while nicely painted, only takes the viewer so far. Two of the paintings show larger than life toy guns in their retail packaging, complete with pushpins holding them to the wall. Another series, of single squirt guns lying on a white surface, presents the objects as plastic "still life". The one painting which breaks from this mode consists of a tiara wearing little girl pointing a toy gun directly at the viewer. This work, with its heavy handed imagery, removes whatever opportunity Cannings' other paintings offer for a variety of viewer responses.

January 30 - March 14, 2009

www.galleryimperato.com