- MICHAEL ROBINSON PHOTOS
Left, 'Nude Study 1' silver gelatin on fibre paper by Khalil Francis. At right, 'Spirit of the Ghetto', acrylic on canvas by Patrick Darby.
Michael Robinson, Gleaner Writer
PEOPLE GENERALLY attend exhibitions like 'Young Generation 2005' for two main reasons. First, they want a good deal on the starving artist who could turn out to be the next Picasso or Cadien. Secondly (and these are in no particular order), they go to be excited.
Our daily lives have developed a certain rhythm that can drone out original thought. Paying bills, getting to work, getting home, reaching a gallery opening just late enough to miss the speeches but still early enough to catch cocktails, and these days just staying alive keep us humming like a taut wire. Without release, we shoot, stab, steal and molest. Without an outlet, we snap.
This is where the young artist comes in.
Young artists are still going through the struggle. They're not yet selling doodles for half a million each, so they still have to catch the bus, still have to endure the weight of the journey to self. As a result, young artists tend to produce some of the most revealingly introspective and thought provoking work.
They are only beginning to learn the language of art and, as a result, they stretch its boundaries with the fearlessness of a two-year-old. We've seen them break open whole new areas of art while inventing techniques and redefining the very discipline they practice.
MISLEADING
The show's title is more than a little misleading though, since the participating artists share achievements ranging from national medals to self-education, and their combined exhibition experience spans the globe.
Mutual Life Gallery stipulated that only artists practising for less than 10 years be allowed to exhibit. This definition of 'young' leaves room for such artists as Glendon Caballero who started pursuing art at 42. It also makes for a more diverse exhibit. Ebony Patterson's impastos are deliciously charming. Across the room, Khalil Francis's nudes wax sublime.
Lone ceramicist Leonia McKoy is nobly represented by 'Inner Beauty'. The tension between the smooth geometric base of the piece and its organic upper section is amplified by her treatment of the inner surface. Chalky smooth on the outside, the inside of the piece, visible in the upper potion, is an unexpected splash of colour, covered in nodules and glazed in hues of blue.
For most, the subject matter and camera angles of Krishna Desai's photos are alone enough to take the breath away. The pictures are even more compelling thanks to Krishna's eye for lighting composition as well as structural composition. Add in the diffusion due to the depth, and the result is an intriguing set of images with an eerily serene quality.
Oneika Russell's innovative approach is an attempt to unify her various interests. She has latched on to a familiar, if not well loved, motif with the mammy figure. From 'Yes M' A Voice Inside Said Quietly' through 'Scrolling Through The Collective Unconscious' through 'Image in the interior' her mammy figure sees several incarnations as the artist explores issues of inferiority and self containment. In the show's only video installation, Russell's mammy negotiates a looped roomful of 'beautiful' furniture and numerous women of the Caucasian persuasion.
If artistic merit is judged by a mastery of the elements of design and the consequent development of a personal creative language, then 'Young Generation 2005' has that. Joel Roper's colours, Stacey-Ann Hyde's strong sense of composition and Cocco's use of space and line are all testament to that.
TESTING BOUNDARIES
If a willingness to let go and explore is what art is judged by, the 'young' artists display that as well. Using media, concepts and technique, these artists demonstrate a strong desire to test boundaries and ask questions. To simply do something new.
If prices are the yardstick, then the modest price tags on these works tell us these are relatively early days for these artists. Good news for the collectors.
If however, artistic merit is to be judged by how well an artist does what society needs him to do, that is a different matter. Then we look at how art excites us. Then we see how far away we are transported, how enticed we are away from the mundane and just how inspired we are to think. We now take into consideration originality and clarity of expression. We measure countless intangibles.
In the end, the artist's real value goes unnoticed. We fail to see how one person's journey can help us on ours. As a society, we fail to understand the role of the original thinkers and the creators in our overall psychic evolution.
In the end, most of us just go back to the rat race.
