Student Reviews of Unnatural Order
Tipping the Balance by Joe Strassler '07
Throughout the ages, there has been a tradition within art of embracing the untouched beauty of the natural world. “Unnatural Order” ignores that tradition. The four different artists featured in this show focus instead on how human imagination has altered the environment to suit our “needs” by means of mechanical invention, and recently through techniques such as cloning and genetic manipulation. By interfering with evolution, this exhibit attempts to show how people have been tipping the balance of evolution more and more throughout the years of their existence. By presenting works of art which somehow present this theme of human intervention within nature, this universal topic is explored while room is still left for personal interpretation by the artists.
The various artists featured within this show have sharply different approaches to this broad and multi-faceted theme. The 18-foot long installation by Randal Thurston examines both the extreme and the subtle physical alterations made to the natural world by rebuilding life through the changing of DNA sequences. At first glance this work seems to represent an anatomical study of the natural world. Black silhouettes of varying size are cut out from heavy-stock black paper and represent various insects. These unusual shapes are placed at varying distances from a white wall. Upon closer examination however, it quickly becomes apparent that there is something distinctly artificial about these cutouts- various neon reflections are cast upon the wall from colored paper placed discreetly on their undersides. The observant viewer will also discover that some of the insect shapes are imaginary. This dramatic and un-orthodox approach taken by Thurston is quite effective for conveying the radical changes people are making to the creatures of the natural world.
The panoramic paintings by Gail Boyajaian take a more delicate, graceful, and subtle approach to this idea of humanity’s intrusion of nature that was not as striking. The 18"x24" oil painting focuses in on a scene deep within the a forest. While the bottom half is in the shade, sun filters through trees in the upper right section of the piece. The shaded area is depicted in a muted palette of dark browns and greens while the upper potion is comprised of bright blues, representing the sky, and brilliant greens for the trees, standing in sharp contrast with the lower half of the composition. Among the trees, several songbirds can be seen perched upon the many branches spanning upon the painting. The birds in the foreground are painted in darker tones of color to match their surroundings. Brighter tones are used for the smaller birds painted in the background, causing them to stand out among the trees and sky. In the middle of the piece, a boy is sitting upon a thick tree root with a bird perched in his lap. Due to his small size and the darker tones, he blends in with the lower part of the composition and the viewer must search for him amount the rest of painting. The overall theme of her work is similar to that of Thurston- how seemingly familiar things can lure us in, but upon further discovery be horribly altered. While her works are indeed beautifully rendered with a rich array of colors, they present too much of a sense of harmony- as with the peaceful integration of the child within the forest in “A Wood Interior Studied” and any threat upon nature seems too subtle to be effectively relevant to the central theme of the show.
On the whole, the arrangement of the show was quite well done. The muted green on the walls was thoughtfully chosen to integrate the various paintings through commonality of tone. The lights were also carefully positioned to prevent any sort of glare off the pieces themselves, but at the same time provided antiquate illumination for their viewing. The only major fault that can be found with the exhibit would be the crowded way in which some of the paintings were hung together at the back of the exhibit, giving them a cramped feel. This ineffective manner of displaying caused me to pay more attention to the wall space at the entrance of the exhibit where Thurston's piece was displayed than Boyajajan’s which were placed out of view towards the back of the exhibit.