Wisconsin Triennial Brochure 2019
Exhibition brochure for the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial Exhibition brochure for the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial
RACHAEL GRIFFIN MADISON Plum, 2016 • Monotype on paper, 44 x 29 1/2 inches • Courtesy of the artist Through the time-intensive process of reductive monotype, Rachael Griffin uses the subject of food to examine appetites — whether a taste for a particular food or a more sensual craving. Curious where and when these associations are made in our brains, she explores several of the universal visual triggers that elicit our most primal desires. In Plum, Griffin renders a bright, juicy plum with a giant bite taken out of it and in Cherry an impossibly tall slice of cherry pie whets our appetite. Fleshy and body-like, her images invoke sensations or memories that are subconscious and inescapable. HELEN HAWLEY MADISON In Time, Its Flow, 2019 • Video installation, single projection with sound, paper screen, steel frame, 5:02 minutes • Sound design by Page Campbell and Helen Hawley • This project was supported by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant • Image courtesy of the artist In Time, Its Flow is a curvilinear aluminum sculpture that both encloses and serves as a projection surface for artist Helen Hawley’s video animation. Using only water, the artist brushes lines across a slate slab to create a hand-drawn animation. As each new mark appears, another evaporates just as quickly, calling attention to both the passage of time and the transient nature of that which is man-made. Intentionally choosing materials that are intangible — evaporating water and vanishing time — Hawley subtly gestures to our own impermanence. JOHN HIMMELFARB SPRING GREEN Leader, 2017 • Maple veneer plywood, 96 x 33 x 14 inches • Courtesy of the artist John Himmelfarb has always been interested in the symbols and markmaking that humans use to communicate ideas — from hieroglyphics to more contemporary pictographs. From his early childhood growing up in Chicago, he recalls walking through Chinatown with his parents, fascinated by the pictorial language on commercial signs and storefronts. His admiration for graphic forms can be seen in his new series of plywood sculptures, which are based on a geometric vocabulary of squares and rectangles. He begins by hand-sketching the designs on graph paper using only straight lines and right angles, and then materializes them in wood using a CNC router. Part human, part architectural, the resulting sculptures oscillate between figuration and abstraction to suggest forms that are both playful and symbolic. JOHN HITCHCOCK MADISON Bury the Hatchet, 2019 • Multimedia sound installation, dimensions variable • Courtesy of the artist John Hitchcock’s Bury the Hatchet installation explores the history of the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma through the images and sounds of the American Frontier. This multimedia work layers soundscapes of steel guitar, cello, clarinet, and accordion with recordings of Hitchcock’s grandfather Saukwaukee John Dussome Reid (Kiowa) telling stories of “the old days on the southern plains.” Hitchcock summons the land, language, and visual symbols of the Great Plains — the focal point for Plains tribal culture — while challenging the dominantly Western narrative of the written word. The resulting installation presents an indigenous view of oral history as passed on from generation to generation through storytelling. Viewers are invited to engage with the installation and activate the sound elements while occupying the dedicated space for the work. 3
JON HORVATH WAUKESHA Stray, from the series This Is Bliss, 2016 • Archival pigment print 24 x 30 inches • Courtesy of the artist and Alice Wilds Gallery, Milwaukee Jon Horvath’s narrative project This Is Bliss investigates the roadside geography and culture of the rural Idaho town of Bliss. The town is historically significant due to its positioning on the Oregon Trail, but sadly Bliss reached its peak in the mid-20th century when Interstate-84 was constructed and vehicular traffic was redirected away from the once thriving community. This Is Bliss investigates the complex booms and busts of a small town, while reflecting its humanity and the complicated, romantic ideals of the American West. CHELE ISAAC MADISON You were invented to manipulate, 2019 • Installation with single-channel video, sculpture, sound, and scent, dimensions variable • Courtesy of the artist • Video in collaboration with Jack Kellogg Video footage, written prose, atmospheric sound, scent, and sculpture come together to create an immersive environment in Chele Isaac’s installation, You were invented to manipulate. Isaac mobilizes the prose within her video to interrogate issues of control, particularly to question who is in control of our democracy. By deploying language and image to confuse rather than clarify, she illuminates the fractured nature of information and the subjectivity of truth within our current political landscape. Working intuitively, Isaac activates all of our senses and challenges us to enter into a space, both physically and emotionally, that prioritizes free association, ambiguity, and the unknown over any definitive answer or didactic message. TOM JONES MADISON Payton Grace, from the series Strong Unrelenting Spirits, 2017 • Archival pigment print and beads, 25 x 20 inches • Courtesy of the artist Tom Jones has been photographing his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, for the past 19 years. Part of an ongoing photographic essay on the contemporary life of his tribe, Jones uses the Native American tradition of beadworking that is typically reserved for clothing to hand-stitch floral designs onto the surface of his photographs. For Jones, the resulting beadwork, which envelops and adorns his figures, is a metaphor for his Ho-Chunk ancestors and their spirits. The series, Strong Unrelenting Spirits, enriches the art historical genre of portraiture and provides visibility to a nation of people who are often left out of prevailing societal narratives. TOMIKO JONES MADISON Hatsubon, 2016 • Mixed media installation, dimensions variable • Courtesy of the artist Tomiko Jones explores cultural landscapes and the ways in which our relationship to the land shapes our identities and defines our sense of place. In Hatsubon, a memorial to her father, Jones creates an installation with photographs of three bodies of water that have familial significance: the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania where her father grew up; the waters surrounding Big Island, Hawaii, her mother’s birthplace and the site of her father’s burial; and the Pacific Coast of California, where her parents met and Jones was born. Another series of photographs on silk picture the artist, her mother, and her sister as they perform the Japanese Buddhist ceremony of hatsubon, marking the first anniversary of a loved one’s death — the three women wade into the sea to release a small bamboo boat into the vast expanse of water. Hatsubon lies within the liminal space between image and object, performance and ritual, life and death. 4
- Page 1: WISCONSIN TRIENNIAL 2019 An exhibit
- Page 4 and 5: SAIF ALSAEGH MILWAUKEE 1991 (video
- Page 8 and 9: DIANE LEVESQUE KENOSHA Dancing Bear
- Page 10 and 11: DANE SCHUMACHER GREEN BAY Self-Taug
- Page 12 and 13: SHANE WALSH MILWAUKEE Xpressor 3, 2
- Page 14 and 15: MMo CA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Officers T
- Page 16: 227 STATE STREET, MADISON, WI TO LE
RACHAEL GRIFFIN MADISON<br />
Plum, 2016 • Monotype on paper, 44 x 29 1/2 inches • Courtesy of the artist<br />
Through the time-intensive process of reductive monotype, Rachael Griffin uses<br />
the subject of food to examine appetites — whether a taste for a particular food<br />
or a more sensual craving. Curious where and when these associations are made<br />
in our brains, she explores several of the universal visual triggers that elicit our<br />
most primal desires. In Plum, Griffin renders a bright, juicy plum with a giant<br />
bite taken out of it and in Cherry an impossibly tall slice of cherry pie whets our<br />
appetite. Fleshy and body-like, her images invoke sensations or memories that<br />
are subconscious and inescapable.<br />
HELEN HAWLEY MADISON<br />
In Time, Its Flow, <strong>2019</strong> • Video installation, single projection with sound,<br />
paper screen, steel frame, 5:02 minutes • Sound design by Page Campbell and<br />
Helen Hawley • This project was supported by a Foundation for Contemporary<br />
Arts Emergency Grant • Image courtesy of the artist<br />
In Time, Its Flow is a curvilinear aluminum sculpture that both encloses and serves<br />
as a projection surface for artist Helen Hawley’s video animation. Using only water,<br />
the artist brushes lines across a slate slab to create a hand-drawn animation. As<br />
each new mark appears, another evaporates just as quickly, calling attention to<br />
both the passage of time and the transient nature of that which is man-made.<br />
Intentionally choosing materials that are intangible — evaporating water and<br />
vanishing time — Hawley subtly gestures to our own impermanence.<br />
JOHN HIMMELFARB SPRING GREEN<br />
Leader, 2017 • Maple veneer plywood, 96 x 33 x 14 inches •<br />
Courtesy of the artist<br />
John Himmelfarb has always been interested in the symbols and markmaking<br />
that humans use to communicate ideas — from hieroglyphics to more<br />
contemporary pictographs. From his early childhood growing up in Chicago,<br />
he recalls walking through Chinatown with his parents, fascinated by the<br />
pictorial language on commercial signs and storefronts. His admiration for<br />
graphic forms can be seen in his new series of plywood sculptures, which are<br />
based on a geometric vocabulary of squares and rectangles. He begins by<br />
hand-sketching the designs on graph paper using only straight lines and right<br />
angles, and then materializes them in wood using a CNC router. Part human,<br />
part architectural, the resulting sculptures oscillate between figuration and<br />
abstraction to suggest forms that are both playful and symbolic.<br />
JOHN HITCHCOCK MADISON<br />
Bury the Hatchet, <strong>2019</strong> • Multimedia sound installation, dimensions variable •<br />
Courtesy of the artist<br />
John Hitchcock’s Bury the Hatchet installation explores the history of the<br />
Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma through the images and sounds of the American<br />
Frontier. This multimedia work layers soundscapes of steel guitar, cello, clarinet,<br />
and accordion with recordings of Hitchcock’s grandfather Saukwaukee John<br />
Dussome Reid (Kiowa) telling stories of “the old days on the southern plains.”<br />
Hitchcock summons the land, language, and visual symbols of the Great Plains<br />
— the focal point for Plains tribal culture — while challenging the dominantly<br />
Western narrative of the written word. The resulting installation presents an<br />
indigenous view of oral history as passed on from generation to generation<br />
through storytelling. Viewers are invited to engage with the installation and<br />
activate the sound elements while occupying the dedicated space for the work.<br />
3
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