Mutherland Presents:
Two of a Kind:
Carole F. Smith
Sean Flour
The work in this married couple's two-person show display similar vocabulary. Their language utilizes and references signs, symbols, decals, decoration, familiar shapes and era-specific imagery. It is fair to say both artists address visual culture and what gets relayed to us personally and as a society. They both manipulate and layer these symbols to push our thinking. While the couple speak a similar dialog, they definitely use different entrances of the house, to get to where they are going.
The way they direct this familiar communication is what is key here. It is then up to the viewer to decipher what might trigger personal memory, or how these symbols reveal about our society.
Carole F. Smith (Scottish born, resides in Tejas)
Smith's highly process related work starts with her careful scavenging at thrift stores and beyond. She plucks out one of a kind and once ubiquitous table width='100%' width='100%'ware that in form is something that speaks to era, style, personal comforts or, possibly, memories of your Aunt Mary's heirloom ash tray. These lovelies, that may already have stories of their own, are then cast into multiples and glazed. Their slightly new identity is tweaked by Smith's hand and her knack for choosing decals that may or may not be a familiar choice. The offness of this fusion is what can make these typically comforting pieces, uncomfortable, more interesting and even sometimes sexy.
Sean Flournoy
Long time print maker and sticker painter, Flournoy has picked out signifiers that tell a narrative of our society, place, and time. Who is responsible for what is being said in our visual culture? Are we all apathetic? Flournoy's golden blinged grenades allude to what has become our norm. He is addressing commodity, merchandise, and just how the repetitive imagery of the ugly-made-okay, has not exactly outraged us in regard to the war. He orchestrates and controls the pervasive images that no one generally acknowledges, in a ever so gentle, but in your face kind of way. Viewers will be pushed to, at the least, notice the build up of what is quietly, but loudly, being said within our culture. Flournoy wants us to take notice.
Sat. July 26, 2008 from 7:00 to 10:00pm
MUTHERLAND
1125 W 31st St.
Chicago Il.60608
http://www.mutherland.org
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