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It's a nice sensation when you realize how objects and ideas intended for one pathwind up taking you through a different landscape entirely. These uniquely (andobliquely) connected points of view are what's happening at PLUG Projects(http://www.plugprojects.com) dual exhibitions, Out There and Reify/Deify.

Although their themes aren't intended to present a connection, it might be a good ideato consider thinking of them as one. You will be rewarded with a duality of sculpture,photography, drawing and installation that brings together myriad ideas of life afterEarth along with the rituals of desire that has kept us bound to terra firma.

The curators of PLUG have correctly made it impossible to not respond to Sarah andJoseph Belknap (http://sarahandjoseph.com)'s enormous Planetoids (2013) blockingthe entrance. Suspended from the ceiling with bungee rope, you must maneuver thepolysterene foam and Styrofoam objects that resemble the continents of Australia,Antarctica and Africa in radioactive hues. Almost everyone assumed you couldn'tinteract with or touch them, but you had to get past the doors and visitors wereassured they could handle them. Then people stopped looking at thee objects assomething to avoid and instead study them so that theories could rise to the surface.Everyone's analysis and observational input becomes important.

(javscript:void(0))

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March 31, 2015

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(/users/becomeFan.php?of=hp_blogger_Blair Schulman) Art writer and critic

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Posted: 03/30/2015 5:45 pm EDT  Updated: 03/30/2015 5:59 pm EDT

Dual Exhibitions at PLUG Projects Explore the Cosmos

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427543027-6443256-Planetoids.jpg)Installation "Out There"  image courtesy PLUG Projects

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427543123-7668887-Planetoids2.jpg)Planetoids (2013) Sarah and Joseph Belknap  image courtesy PLUGProjects

I look to artists and makers to act upon instincts to provide answers to questionsmany of us are often afraid to ask. With that in mind, these works are an explorationof a world in mourning. By observing and interacting in this context, my cynical selfsees documentation that unmasks our ignorant privilege and its accompanying failureto understand the present. Can we grasp meaning from a distance and only inhindsight? In so many sci-fi movies, the trip into outer space is often driven by someimmediate earthbound dilemma; attack, catastrophe, escape, and now we standbefore these observations, a ghostly study of what went wrong.

Pictures of the Earth (2007-2015) are Sean McFarland (http://sean-mcfarland.com)'s37 Polaroid reproductions on newsprint. Images of water, clouds, storms, tornadosand other surfaces taken from afar add to the bizarre idea of slides imported fromEarth for research. Their desolation only adds to the feeling that we are observing theworld through a past darkly.

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(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427543207-5221734-PicturesoftheEarth.jpg)Pictures of the Earth (20072015) Sean McFarland  image courtesy PLUGProjects

There is a rat-a-tat-tat-tat of a digital projection Backandforthmanteau (2015) byCorwin Levi (http://www.corwinlevi.com)implies that we are far into the future andour science has become dated and obsolete, but what we need to observe remainsimperative.

There are gouche on paper works from Siobhan McBride(http://www.siobhanmcbride.com) that doesn't necessarily coordinate succinctly withthe other works throughout, but does add certain dystopian elements. Thinkingparticularly of Grid, in the upper portion of this piece is a silver, gelatinous cloud thatclosely resemble the recently discussed(http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/03/this-futuristic-water-bottle-is-an-edible-gelatinous-blob/388087/) edible water containers, injecting an element of hope notto be ignored.

Multimedia artist Davin Wante (http://davinwatne.com)'s Pop Art references shouldnot be denied but the narrative in Reify/Deify is confusing. His objects are intendedto be more serious than they appear but it's also impossible to ignore their culturaland sexual humor. These outward elements are a presence that can crowd out hissubtler works, like the poetically simple bust, Unstable Axiom (2015).

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427543422-2621473-UnstableAxiomWatne.jpg)Unstable Axiom (2015) Davin Watne  image courtesy PLUG Projects

Over the years, Watne has produced ideas that references the lines of holistic beliefs,sexuality and consumerism. This current body of work is not much different, but here,in a smaller space where full and total examination is inevitable, I feel these newerpieces tend to behave as supporting characters rather than protagonists. Reificationof Taste (2013) are two foam and acrylic tongues standing erect in individual shallow

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black pools of water. Preserved as part of a deeper exploration or a remark of thetongue as sexual object is an innuendo that doesn't make itself clear. They're imposingand might better engage in a dialogue with the enormity of Planetoids.

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427543507-2250392-ReificationofTasteWatne.jpg)Reification of Taste (2013) Davin Watne  image Courtesy PLUG Projects

Thinking back to Watne's earlier car crash series of the mid-2000's; startling andgripping paintings that spoke about mankind's collision with nature. I conclude thesecurrent works are a direction in the abstract that still needs sorting out if it is to becontinued.

One needs only to turn to the opposite wall to see his stream of consciousnessdrawings There Is A Shape We Don't Recognize (2015) to fully understand that Watnehas the power to realize provocative ideas. Advert Studies 1 & 2 (2014, digital print onarchival paper) also supports this and are a seamless continuation of Watne'semotional thinking.

(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2015-03-28-1427544099-191053-InstallationDavinWatne.jpg)Installation Reify/Deify - image courtesy PLUG Projects

Beneath their inertness, the works in Reify/Deify and Out There are stabilized by longmemories. Their stillness is alive with all they have witnessed. Whether recentlyconstructed or not, a story takes root in our mind as we experience their messages.

The overarching theme one ought to consider is the future was once in our hands andnow it's gone. I see these two shows as manifestations of a world not gone mad, butsimply gone. These are some of its artifacts to recall as we fly through an infinitedarkness.

Follow Blair Schulman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/B_Abstract(http://www.twitter.com/B_Abstract)

Art, Kansas City Artists, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Installation Art, Cosmos

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