Beyond smoke and mirrors...Graphic image casts its spell
Campus Times
October 11, 1996
"Naysplatter," installed by Jennifer Steinkamp and Grain,
is a multi-colored and digitally animated graphic. The image, generated
by computer, is projected on to the wall and involves the interaction of
the viewer and space with the images. Steinkamp's work includes sound, by
collaborators Jimmy Johnson and Peter Ehrlich, also known as Grain. Steinkamp's
work has been exhibited both in the United States and internationally.
Art for some people can mean many different things. That is why the University
of La Verne's Harris Art Gallery combines creative computer graphic animation
and digital projections in its latest exhibit.
The show is called "Naysplatter," brought to the University by
artists Jennifer Steinkamp and Grain. It will be shown through Nov. 20.
Steinkamp's work involves the use of three-dimensional computer graphic
animation and digital projections which are designed in consideration of
the architectural space in which they are viewed.
"Naysplatter" uses two projectors with the same image projected
on a wall with different colors. It is the interaction of two images together
creating a third entity.
According to a written statement by Steinkamp, "This work can be considered
part of a new digital art genre because of its origins in computer-based
technology. At the same time it is part of a long-standing evolution in
installation art."
"Three-D computer graphics, virtual reality if you will, is a new medium
for artists. I find it extremely gratifying to work with these adept tools,"
she said. Art can be created that have never been experienced before, although
this can also be all too tempting.
"I feel a great responsibility to create artwork that engenders poetic
resonance. Artwork should work on many levels, it can be accessible and
interesting to an untrained audience, as well the cultural vanguard. One
of my greatest challenges is to create a work where complex ideas can be
best experienced as works of art."
Steinkamp is a professor of computer graphics at the Art Center in Pasadena.
"Naysplatter" represents the newest work in a series that has
been exhibited internationally. Steinkamp's work has been included in exhibitions
at the Bonn Kunstverein and the Rotterdam Film Festival in Germany, New
Langton Arts in San Francisco, and many Los Angeles contemporary exhibitions.
Ruth Trotter, associate professor of art, brought Steinkamp to the Harris
Art Gallery because of her reputation as an artist.
"Her work is contemporary and of the best quality at the same time,"
she said.
She believes Steinkamp is a great artist and that this exhibition will bring
considerable visibility to the ULV community.
Trotter believes "that fine art viewed through a computer is exciting,
using the latest advances in technology."
Trotter and Steinkamp have worked together since August to take measurements
for the space in the gallery, and Steinkamp then designed a piece to fit
the space accordingly. "Naysplatter," therefore, involves the
interaction of the viewer and space with images.
Though Steinkamp's work is created with computer technology, it explores
themes similar to those of abstract painting, film and light and space art.
"My work has evolved out of a deep interest in issues of feminism.
Specifically, all of my work is about exploring subjectivity," she
said.
"My site-specific installations set up complex relationships between
viewer and the viewed. In the environment I create, the relationship between
viewing subject and art object is recast.
"My work engages with the spatial politics of vision. It breaks down
standard, often male-coded, modes of seeing to create a more open physical
state of pleasure that includes both genders. With the help of virtual technology,
the work sets out to de-center and reconstitute the viewing subject as we
know it."
According to Don Pollock, associate professor of communications, "In
teaching the advanced video production class, students cover events in the
community and on campus. This is an event that was of interest to my students
because of the international stature of the artist, as well as this being
the first installation of its kind to come to the La Verne campus."
Pollock added, "Students were inspired by what they saw-an installation
that is video-based, but it is not information-driven or story-driven, it
is about images and how they interact in a specific gallery space. I thought
the exhibit was way cool."
The Harris Gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.