Maybe it's just that seeing MFA shows puts me in a frame of mind that seeks underlying aesthetics that could unify disparate artists, but I was amused to read Jerry Saltz Village Voice reviews of Mike Kelly and Jon Kessler's exhibits. Like a scientist diagnosing a new strain of art virus, Saltz whizzes through a flurry of names for the syndrome he’s trying to articulate – “the New Cacophony or the Old Cacophony, Agglomerationism, Disorientationism, the Anti Dia, or just a raging bile duct” – before asserting that “terms that describe this sculptural strategy include grandiose and testosterone-driven.” (italics original)
Hmmm. "Testosterone-driven?" I wonder what Erin, whose thesis installation was conceptually and structurally a whirlwind would say about that (and I'll invite her to respond). I wonder what Vanessa, who expressed such keen interest in the Swarm Exhibit at the Fabric Workshop and Museum would say. Or Terri, whose work may not manifest clutter in the way Kessler or Kelley do, but who pours references from the body to Beslan into her work. Or anyone who is a little curious about the ease with which such approaches are regarded as "strategic" rather than "tactical" or even in non-oppositional terms all together. But let's save that for another posting.
Before asserting that the "new cacophony" is "very gendered and very male", Saltz did offer one interesting read of the shows, which went like this:
Nowadays this all-at-once gambit can be seen as a way to compete with the paranoia and havoc of everyday life; a homeopathic dose of poison whereby ruins are created to counteract ruin; a manic-depressive panic attack in the face of information overload; a rejoinder to minimalism; a way to fill space and get attention.
Which put me in the mind of the Ellen Harvey show I was able to run in and see while in Philly. If you've not seen it yet, get off yer' ass and go(there's tiny picture above. It's tiny to frustrate you into going to see the real deal...). The four large mirrors are, on their own, enchanting enough to hold the space without the video elements of the show. But this notion that the image of a ruin of the Academy within its walls might constitute some form of inoculation rather than assault (Alex Baker's essay on the show was stunningly confrontational, wasn't it?) is an engaging notion, and perhaps one that deserves more thorough and consideration than the latest incarnation of bad-boy art.
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Bill Barrette writes about Eva Hesse. All order is ephemeral; permanence is an ideal illusion. Chaos eats order. Yet chaos possesses a structure and, even if not revealed to us, has its own order. Of one of her last works, Hesse said: "Its order could be chaos. Chaos can be structured as non-chaos.”
It’s funny that Jerry Saltz attributes chaotic art as “very male.” He quotes, “women artists accrue like crazy but apparently don’t get off as much on making messes.” I guess it depends on what his idea of a mess is.
Saltz places a gender role on this art he describes as an overload, but mentions two female artists in the article. He mentions Sarah Sze and Phoebe Washburn as artist who “nurture” their materials more. Does this make their art less chaotic? Less filling of the space they are occupying? They both transform the space creating overloads of information. It may not be the “New Cacophony,” but I do think it fits in this classification of work.
If we dig deep, I think Saltz’s theory about females and disarray would be proven wrong. I know I fit in this category somehow.
According to Hesiod's Theogonia, Chaos was the nothingness out of which the first objects of existence appeared.
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