"Gridlock" By Elizabeth Nelson: "The Only True Thing About Art Is That It's Deception."

​GET IT WHILE IT'S FREE!

​ON AUGUST 8, 2021
 "EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTIONS" WILL BE FREE ON KINDLE

​Love is a Physics experiment gone crazy.
"Equal and Opposite Reactions"
http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
GET IT WHILE IT'S FREE!

​
​"GRIDLOCK" BY ELIZABETH NELSON: "THE ONLY TRUE THING ABOUT ART IS THAT IT'S DECEPTION."

     Last night my daughter Theresa and I met at 934 Gallery in the Milo Arts area in downtown Columbus.

Theresa

     We came for the opening of "Gridlock," the new show by Elizabeth Nelson,        

...Columbus visual artist and grade school chum of Theresa's.
      Gallery 934 was once upon a time an auto body shop, now repurposed as an exhibit space.

     Though a number of works by local artists are on display, 

...most of the gallery's main wall space currently exhibits the winners of a juried mural competition.

    Some of the pieces of the murals are for sale and can be removed from the piece,

...which accounts for  the blank spaces in some of the murals.

       Elizabeth Nelson's exhibit is an installation located in a room off the main area.

       The pieces of the installation are black and white squares of mixed media, though constructed mostly of plexiglass and plastic.

     While were perusing the exhibit we ran into another old friend of Theresa's, the artist's sibling J.L.

   A pose for old time's sake.

     When I was able to corner Elizabeth I asked her about her installation.
   Elizabeth, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, explained that the concept of Gridlock  originated visually for her from the space itself: The glass block window,

...and the fireplace bricks,

...got her thinking about immovable squares and gridlock.
         Most of the floor pieces and wall pieces are the same principle: The squares are divided into rows of two,

...rows of three,

...rows of four,

...and so on, with the number of squares per row increasing while the size of the squares decreases, until the smallest subdivision of the most squares numbers 27 squares per row.

        The floor squares are made of etched plexiglass,

...some the wall hangings are of plexiglass,

...some make use of fishing line, as well,

...and some are painted plastic.

​    The purpose of the different materials was for variation on the same theme. 
   As far as what that theme might be, Elizabeth explained that it's emotional. It's about when we're breaking things down to smaller and smaller and smaller parts, but that's all we can do. And so no matter how much we keep trying to break a thing down, it's still never right, we're still in the same square, we can't move on. We're gridlocked.

​  Theresa and I then got into a discussion with Elizabeth of ways in which the work might be interpreted, or how it spoke to us. We talked about a futile quest for perfection, about obsession, or even an ADHD-style need for persistent repetition.

    Theresa brought up that plexiglass could be a symbol of the gridlock our lives have been in since the COVID epidemic: plexiglass dividers everywhere we go have become a part of life.    

      For me the black and white color scheme resonated, which probably isn't too surprising. considering that black and white seems to be a motif that somehow runs through my life.

      In the midst of this discussion of what "Gridlock" may or may not mean,  Elizabeth brought up an interesting observation: the deception of art.
​    For example, art is deception when it transforms three dimensions into two, as in a still life represented on a flat surface. As for the deception in "Gridlock," the way a light is shone on something or the angle from which you look at it may  cause misunderstanding: the plexiglass may look waved, or like strips of ribbon:

    The fish line looks stronger than it is because what we are seeing is not the fish line, but the shadow it casts.

     We see images in the floor that are only reflections.

       She also told us that the the "furniture" on her exhibition announcement picture was really just small pieces that she'd made from paper and bits of wood, that the background was paper, and that the shadows were painted on.

       "The only only true thing about art is that it's deception," Elizabeth wryly noted.
       But what beautifully thought-provoking deception.
     If you live in the Columbus area then come to Milo Arts and see Elizabeth Nelson's "Gridlock." It's good to have your thoughts provoked.

    To be continued...