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I don't really write reviews. I am just not very good at it. I always seem to insert myself into the work or go off on some random story about something that hardly relates or at best I get it completely wrong. "This work is about your cat right?"
You can imagine that it is very hard for a metalsmith/jeweler/maker, to not talk about objects. It is sort of like asking a graphic designer to ignore the horrific typography on a menu at a fancy restaurant They just can't do it. "Cooper Black! I am paying $40 for a steak and I have to look at COOPER BLACK!!!" Trust me, this sort of thing is an addiction! Sometimes you just HAVE to say something. In academia it usually happens during a critique. This obsession comes out as strange jarring, stabbing statements that throw you for a loop. "Why didn't you sand it?" "Whats up with this pitting?" "I just can't talk about this piece because of all of these fingerprints!"
If you ask my wife, I go off on these long rants about objects ALL THE TIME. First, I get flustered and then I start cursing, which then quickly de-evolves into me smashing something. I HATE things sometimes. For example, why can't anyone one get a freaking travel mug right! It always leaks, dribbles or breaks! It NEVER fits into a cup holder. Why are the tailgates on SUVs always at crotch level!? When you lean in to get your groceries or 2x4s or whatever you get this nice black stripe across your crotch! Or how some door knobs are annoyingly close to door jams so when you grasp the knob you end up smashing your knuckles against the trim........ I have a problem...or maybe a sickness... or maybe I just care about the things that I interact with everyday.
As a maker I have always thought that if you are going to do something, you need to do it right. There are already a million things in this world and if you are going to add something to it, it better be good. As a maker there is always a beginning. When you are learning how to use your hands for the second time in your life (the first time was when you were a baby...trust me you don't remember) you tend to make lot of crap. Ashtrays, ugly mugs, candle holders....you know "masterpieces".
At this stage, more often than not, people decide that what ever they are attempting to make is not for them. "I tried ceramics once...the clay and I just didn't get along" The few that totally give in and join the cult of _____ give their soul to a craft and end up developing strange superpowers. They not only are able to speak this strange object language but they are also able to bend material to their will. By making objects and using objects and using objects to make objects they become these strange object whisperers. The details of why that bend in that spoon is there or why that lipped edge is curled up just so becomes part of their life. Really, only someone that has banged out a million cups really knows the proper lip curl to prevent dribbles. This ability is ingrained in the back their minds so when they need to make something it is just there. Their hands start moving and then.....done. The perfect thing is made real.
I have always been a fan of Myra's work. I think everyone can remember when they saw that slide of the melting candelabra in their basic metalsmithing class. Before coming to New Paltz all I wanted to do was to touch that thing. I mean really hold it and kind of "feel the weight of her hammer" if you will. Her show, at Sienna gave me that opportunity. Over the years I have been to her studio and seen some things here and there but I have never touched finished pieces. I have never seen the work in the place where it was made to be.
Her new work is a little different than her old work but still very "Myra". With her old work there was a visual path that connected the old to the new. She would use old found metal objects in the work and then often dissected, melted or flattened them. I always thought it was a commentary on how important these objects were at one time. By smashing them she not only created a time-stamp in metals history but she earmarked a point in her own career to move on. After this point she had to stop relying on the past to inform the future. You can only beat a dead horse for so long. I imagine it was like building a wall that you eventually had to climb over. Every piece that she made that referenced the past was like layering more brick. How do you do that? How do you avoid talking about the past? I mean objects come from somewhere. There is always some version of the thing before the thing.
The best part about her new work is how original it is without being original. What I mean to say is that I see familiar details that I barely recognize. Holes, tapers, rivets, screw heads, pinch points etc. We see a lot of these things in everyday objects. We see them, but really we normally just ignore them. Someone spent a lot of time figuring out those details. It was their job making those details. They are important and often the whole reason an object exists When you expect to see them they are boring but when they are there for YOU to discover, you engage the work obsessively, looking for more.
To me, this is some of the most successful contemporary metal work I have seen in a long time. It is exciting to me. Not to sound cliche but it is a visual adventure. It is almost like getting dropped off in a foreign country, using a pocket translator, loosing it and then only barely making it home. There is this nervous excitement to the work. As soon as your mind starts to recognize all of those little details she immediately blurs them into this exciting new object. A lot of the work is in a scale between handheld and larger than handheld. So, not only are the details balancing between the recognizable and the non-recognizable the scale allows the work to move between something that could be "used" and shouldn't be used. From Sienna's webpage (far more eloquent than I) "…my current interest is to develop new forms without stylistic antecedents. Deliberately tentative, this work investigates facture, explores gesture and embodies utilitarian notions, suggesting a return to the table."
One of the best parts of the show is that you have the option of putting on gloves and picking up the work. Again, sort of my dream. I couldn't help feeling like I was being offered an opportunity to hold something that I may never see again in person. It was a great experience. Knowing, how much work it took to make these objects added to the awe of it all. It was weird having Myra there while I was touching her work. What an amazing thing to be able to see your work and then see someone intimately interact with it for the first time.
(I want the big smooshed copper one. I think it looks like a flattened necklace/collar. Jewelry maybe?)
