KnightArts Reviews Understudy
KnightArts Reviews Understudy
Chip Schwartz muses on the exhibition and concludes “Play acting can be fun or funny, but it can also prove a powerful point about what we can truly know.”
Schwartz writes on the four artists whose works were performed, played, or displayed for one-night only December 5th. His reflections on all four include some apt thoughts on the human condition. Of Brad Jamula, he writes:
Like the featureless, anonymous avatars of Internet comment sections, the dummy represents both a very specific person and yet nobody at all. By literally grappling with this form by way of a choreographed ritual, Brad Jamula confronts his individuality and his sameness by way of a most peculiar form of voodoo.
Of Alex Ibsen:
This exercise in futility is not unlike the disconnect of understanding the experience of another. As much as it seems absurd for a man to imitate a termite imitating a beaver, would it be much different for a man to claim to understand the experience of a woman? How about a man of a different race?
Of Peter Cotroneo
Each hit looks mostly benign. “He’s not really trying to hurt himself,” we think… but then the minutes pass and the rhythm of the metal-on-face reminds us that, while he is utilizing restraint, that still must hurt. Like a meditation on aging, degradation and self-consciousness, even when the artist ceases his assault, the effects live on.
And lastly, of Mark Martinex, Schwartz writes:
In American society where self-promotion and confidence often have no limits, Martinez latches onto the spectacle of exposure as a performance without the action. Larger than life in an oversaturated culture is as close to on par as we can get unless we simply choose to opt out.
NAPOLEON 