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Campsite
(Lean-to), 2 x 4's, crocheted doilies, mixed media
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Campsite
(Lean-to), detail: shelter area |
Polar
Bear (Lounge), crocheted yarn, satin quilted cushions
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Allergens
(Pollen) |
installation
view: Paradise Islands (Ficus), digitally manipulated C-Prints,
and Tree Growth Rings, crocheted yarn.
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Set-Ups
and Spoils
1999
Five
mixed-media installations at
the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE
CATALOG
ESSAY
The
art of installation continues to be a fresh and inventive approach
to interaction and intervention in an art space. For her first
solo exhibition outside of San Francisco, Stephanie Syjuco has
created a walk-in sculptural environment entitled "Set-Ups and
Spoils," comprising of six works. For her largest work, Set-Up
(Campsite), in the DCCA's Main Gallery, Syjuco was inspired by
the local landscape. She expanded an earlier work, "Grove" (1997)
with many new elements to create an exterior construct resembling
a lean-to shelter, dam, or riverside campsite.
In "Set-up (campsite)," Syjuco attached dozens
of little doilies, hand-crocheted in shades of green, to a few
dozen construction-grade 2 x 4's that precariously sprawl away
from the wall. Despite the loosely-stacked arrangement of the
doily-dappled lumber, the interior space of "Set-Up (Campsite)"
is equipped for an extended stay, with an abundance of "cozy,
comfort" elements including two red polar fleece blankets, rolled
and secured to planks with bungee cords, a glowing orange utility
light hung in the center, and several plush toilet seat covers
laid down as ground cover. All are brand new and ready for years
of service. This space would be just right for one small person
to huddle. Syjuco's intention is not for the site's authentic
use, but rather for it to stand temporarily as a measurement of
society, where discount department store goods and elements of
planned housing mix to symbolize modern survival.
In the center of the gallery space Syjuco set up "Throw (Polar
Bear)" with Lounge." An arrangement of a white knitted yarn
throw in the shape of a polar bear skin lies flat on the floor
among four chocolate-brown, hand-quilted, stuffed stain rock-like
forms rising from tufted pads of the same material. Here, the
artist's intention is for human use. This playful grouping invites
social interaction. Two to four people can sit or lie comfortably
on the luxurious cushion/rocks and engage in both a dialogue and
a sense of community. In the context of Syjuco's overall installation,
the humor and comfort offered in this set-up is disturbed as the
bearskin takes on the dark humor and irony of a "spoil."
Also conveying a slightly uneasy sensation is "Nervenkranken
(Full Moon and Clouds)". For this two-dimensional work, Syjuco
meticulously cut and edged identical twin shapes in navy blue,
gray, and cream felt. She tacked the amoebae-shaped pieces directly
on the wall, up high, with the corner as the center. The work
reads visually as a Rorschach ink blot, which "tests" the viewer's
response. Is it collapsing in on the corner, as it appears, or
expanding as it also seems to do? The viewer's inner dialogue
with this image creates the uncertainty Syjuco intends. What exactly
does one's reading of a Rorschach say about the conscious or subconscious?
"Allergens (Pollen)" is a wall-strewn work of pale
pink and golden sequins on straight pins. Hundreds of these individual
elements twirl and flicker in response to air blowing from a nearby
rotating electric fan. Long cast shadows make "Allergens (Pollen)"
appear to be zooming comet-like through the air, defying visual
and physical weight.
Flanking a doorway and hung almost to the floor of a nearby wall
is "Paradise Islands," a set of three graphically beautiful
Cibachromes made from Syjuco's Polaroids of actual office plants.
Syjuco produced this work by scanning the Polaroids into a computer
and morphing their foliage into Rorschach forms sprouting bizarrely
out of too-small orange pots. The whitish backgrounds of the prints
have a strange sheen, similar to the glow of fluorescent lighting.
The strangeness of the image goes further, raising questions about
the sense of forcing live things to thrive as decoration in an
unnatural environment.
On the floor in front of "Paradise Islands" is an arrangement
of striped biomorphic forms crocheted in brown and beige entitled
"Tree Growth Rings." Here, Syjuco's hand and labor to materially
process these pieces are evident. The time it takes the yarn to
be transformed into each flat shape is maybe several hours. Lying
on the floor, they look like little rugs at first, but then they
begin to evoke images of ground-down stumps that sadly reflect
the passing of time.In the broadest sense, "Set-Ups and Spoils"
alludes to the predicament of the body and of society in a state
of simultaneous growth and decay.
Syjuco offers no single meaning or set of meanings, but rather
utilizes a mix of simple and familiar materials to create art
that poses questions and explores complex ideas about nature,
culture, expansion and collapse. With her inventive mix of temporal
and synthetic elements, Stephanie Syjuco broadly explores the
intersections of nature and culture, blurring boundaries and unfolding
new territories.
--Dede Young, Curator, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Art
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