Tuesday, March 3, 1998
Body art provides thought for minds
ART New exhibit has interesting perspectives on human
appearances
By Vanessa VanderZanden
Daily Bruin Staff
It contains us. It moves us. It frees us and controls us.
But what really is this mortal coil?
That is the question with which the current exhibit at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) attempts to grapple. Titled
"From Head to Toe: Concepts of the Body in Twentieth-Century Art,"
the permanent collection pieces used illustrate a changing view of
the human form. Showing through April 27, the show reflects the
attitudes of nearly 45 different artists.
Many images draw on a variety of mediums to depict their
subject. For example, Annette Messager relies on not only two
human-sized black and white photographs of feet in her piece, but
she continues her statement with the inclusion of several chopped
up pictures and colored ink. The ink drips down the feet like
watercolor and swirls around the collage-style clippings.
While the left foot has pieces of a face turning like a vortex
from the heel, the right foot has a calm depiction of a harbor
scene displayed on it. Jarring images of creatures and scissors and
a key mysteriously creep at the left foot’s sole, leaving one to
question if the work doesn’t play with the idea of a foot’s sole as
a metaphor for the "internal" soul. In this way, Messager seems to
suggest that people have two souls, one confused and one eternally
serene.
Likewise, Matta’s untitled 1940 piece uses several materials to
reveal a less-than-stable concept of the human form. Crayon, pencil
and collage reveal practically cartoon-like sketches of people with
bluish, yellowish or pinkish skin. Set upon a multi-dimensional
background, the work seems at once straightforward and shifty.
The characters merge into each other during several contrasting
acts. In one portion, two figures lose themselves in the midst of
love-making, while in another, three forms slip into one another
during a knife fight. Meanwhile, two more bodies appear to have
been just slain, still lingering at the edge of one contorted
figure’s swift foot.
However, the only character truly alone seems engaged in
performing hari-kari upon a private mat. Yet, the other two victims
suggest that not even in death comes peace, only the interchange of
connection with other individuals. In a sense, Matta reveals how
the human form creates the capacity for deeper human connection, as
strange and chaotic as it may often be.
Another multi-textural piece exists in Tim Hawkinson’s
"Blindspot (Fat Head)." As the artist blends together acrylic, hide
glue, resin, wax on paper and steel, he forms his interpretation of
what the parts of his body look like which are not visible within
his view. Acne, warts and the opening to an anus all reveal
themselves as though on the skinned hide of a slaughtered man.
With the words "Fat Head" barely visible in red and green over
the entirety of the work, it remains unclear if Hawkinson pokes fun
at his visible shortcomings or whether he finds his "blindspot"
helpful. In any case, the unusual perspective calls to attention
the normative angles in which one perceives oneself. It also brings
to mind the film "The Silence of the Lambs."
Similarly, Vito Acconci has fun with the body in his "Prototype
for Virtual Pleasure Mask." Here, a fencer’s wire-netted face
helmet has a huge pink penis for a nose and an open pink vagina for
a mouth. The eyes, made of two antennaed radios, are wired to the
two metallic ear pieces.
Though this representation borders on insanely juvenile, it
lightens the mood created by the otherwise concept-heavy works.
Also, one wonders how pleasurable it really would be to have, say,
a penis for a nose and a vagina for a mouth. Or how great it
possibly could be to never see, only exist blindly in a world where
artificial noises ceaselessly gain entrance into one’s psyche.
Likewise, Rona Pondick’s six-by- three-foot glass case of
aluminum cartoon figurines, entitled "Jacks," produces a
less-than-weighty visual response. The numerous stick-like bodies
have faceless baseball-sized heads crammed on top, revealing only
gaping mouths lined with teeth. Perhaps Pondick makes a statement
on the desire within human kind to consume more, with nowhere to
store it.
Maybe she just digs metal toys.
In fact, most of the pieces on display in "From Head to Toe"
offer little more than something to look at, with deeper meanings
found only after plenty of mental stretching. But then again, if
art didn’t provoke audiences to exercise their intellectual
capacities, museums might as well not exist. And artists, for that
matter, may as well all become dental hygienists or plastic
surgeons.
But we already have enough of those.
What we need is people to question why these professions exist.
Which, in a way, LACMA’s "From Head to Toe" helps to answer. Even
if in not so obvious a fashion.
ART: "From Head to Toe: Concepts of the Body in
Twentieth-Century Art" shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. through April 27. Admission is $6 for
adults, $4 for seniors and students with ID and free for children
younger than 5. For more information call (213) 857-6000.