MOCAD's Kresge Art's Experience: Rod Klingelhofer

I hope everyone in the Metro Detroit area has had the opportunity to get down to Detroit this week to take part of the awesome new art movement Art X Detroit, a unique celebration of the 2008-2010 Kresge Eminent Artists and Kresge Artist Fellows. There is a plethora galleries, museums, and spaces around the city that are participating in Art X Detroit, where exhibitions, poetry and musical performances, and panel discussions take place. I recently took a trip down to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) to listen to a poetry reading, watch a few wonderful musical performances, and view the Kresge Art's Experience exhibition that is currently on display.

There are many incredibly talented Detroit artists featured in the Kresge Art's Experience exhibition (planned by Luis Croquer). All of the work is organized around the theme of "Reimagining Detroit," in which many works focuse on building a healthy and vibrant artistic ecology. Though there are many visually stunning pieces in a variety of medias, I was particularly intrigued by Rod Klingelhofer's Stuffed: A Theory of Human Motivation (2010).

Klingelhofer's mixed media sculpture is set up as a sort of assembly line, with pulleys, moving belts, and plastic tubing. There are several bean bags (or stuffed with something else - I wasn't able to touch them) that line up along the belts, where they are transported up to the top of the sculpture. They land on a clear plastic surface, where they sit and build up. As they continue to collect, it becomes too much and the bags eventually drop down a clear plastic tubing to a table below. The table also has belts that churn along and force the bags back onto the belts that will take them to the top of the sculpture, starting the process over again.

Though I am not typically interested in sculpture and such, I couldn't help but find myself intrigued with Stuffed: A Theory of Human Motivation. It wasn't plugged in when I visited MOCAD, so I circled around the structure, looking at it from different angles and inspecting the materials that were used to create it. I believe not seeing it in motion helped me to use my imagination, gave me a challenge, and motivated my curiosity.

As I put together the pieces to understand the purpose of the belts and how the bags moved throughout the structure, I began to understand Klingelhofer's work in different ways. At first, I saw it as a study of motion and kinetic energy. Then I tried to understand it in a more conceptual way. The table looks almost like a typical picnic table, which brought concepts of consumerism and the family life to mind.

Everything made much more sense after reading Klingelhofer's artist statement, which is why I chose to write about it. I find the concept behind Stuffed: A Theory of Human Motivation very relevant to today's American society. Klingelhofer explains that we are tempted to equate getting stuff with being happier in this consumer culture.

The way the bean bags collecting at the top is the equivalent of the stuff we collect over life and the conveyor belts "feed" the stuff to us. They fall through the hole after collecting too much, which I equate to the times in life when times get tough and things feel as if they're falling through your fingers. All the stuff we gather won't keep us happy in life. We must find joy within ourselves and be content without worldly collections.

Aspara Warrior - Peace in Cambodia

I recently took a trip to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor, MI. There are many wonderful works there, but I found the art in the Modern and Contemporary Collection most intriguing. Curated by Jacob Proctor, there is a mixture between incredibly conceptual works, abstract, surreal, political, and other such movements. While moving through this collection of UMMA, I came across a six foot sculpture located in a corner that I found incredibly interesting.

Vichet's creation, Aspara Warrior (2004), intrigues me in several ways. Upon first glace, I recognized the piece as a human figure standing upon a mound. As I moved in closer, I took notice of the texture in the metal that the sculpture was made of. Involving myself further with this piece, I came to realize the metal that made up the Aspara Warrior was, in fact, many several gun pieces. I had to find out what the significance of the guns were when I realized what the metal really was.

As I read the statement attached with Aspara Warrior, I understood it in a whole different light. Before reading the narrative, I saw this work as a political statement against gun violence or warfare. As I am a proponent for responsible use of guns, I tried to look at it in a different light than what I thought it was creating a proclamation against. There must have been a multilevel meaning behind it.


The artist statement explains that Aspara Warrior was created in response by a Cambodian student,Ouk Chim Vichet from the Royal University of Fine Arts, to raise awareness of the need for non-violence in society. I have conflicting ideas on violence, where I see baring arms as a good right to have when placed in the right hands but am strongly against hate, especially for things that are out of people's hands. I am not familiar with the conflicts within Cambodia, but from what I gathered, it seems that there is anger and hate between the Cambodian people. Because I do not know the history or facts of Cambodian violence, I will not delve into this topic at this moment.

An Aspara is a heavenly dancer who entertains the Thai gods. They are understood to be peaceful beings, which brings irony to the Aspara Warrior. The Aspara Vichet created is made up of remnants of several detonated AK-47s, an item that can be used to bring much harm to those it is used against. What Vichet's piece speaks to me is that there is discord between the history of Cambodian beliefs and what is happening between it's people these days. Perhaps Vichet is trying to understand the culture with two belief systems surrounding the Cambodian culture, or world in general. So many promote peace while many others fight in conflict. Who is right? Is each side not just standing up for what they believe in, but in different modes?

The sculpture itself is very compelling to me. I applaud Vichet on the ability to create an interesting, subtly beautiful sculpture out of material that is seen as ugly and painful to so many. The firearms seem to be disassembled to make up the body, headdress, and ground the Aspara stands upon. The being is holding an object with both hands. Though it is abstract and one can only guess at what the object is supposed to be, judging from the concept behind the work, I could see the object representing the actual guns (or violence) Vichet is standing against. I understand it from this view because the Aspara seems to be breaking the object, signifying an end to violence in society.

The City Speaks from Zhang Zhang

University of Michigan graduates have wowed me! Though I didn't attend all of the A&D MFA Thesis Exhibition shows (there are five galleries in all), I can vouch for the talent filled within the show at the Jean Paul Slusser Gallery, curated by Mark Nielson. This exhibition features four U of M graduate students who work in a variety of media, including sculpture, collage, painting, and multi-media. The latter medium is the work that caught my attention with the execution, created environment, aesthetics, and concept.

The City Speaks (2011), created by third year Chinese student Zhang Zhang, takes the viewer through a 5 minute and 45 second journey as they "follow" the video's character around a city. Zhang uses both illustrations and symbols to representative the city and the character. I found this method of animation and story telling very intriguing. In my opinion, Zhang successfully merges the "dirty" effect of grunge design with the simple and clean-cut design of Swiss style.

Zhang's illustrations in this film appear sketchy and almost unfinished at times. She uses a limited color palette of yellow, red, and black throughout The City Speaks. Zhang's illustrations are outlines with black, almost looking as though she used charcoal to sketch them into the animation. Red and yellow appear as watercolor splashed throughout the city, which I find quite beautiful.

The merging of both grunge and Swiss style reminds me a lot of city living. When some think of cities, they may think of dirty, grimy places filled with pollution, noise, and rude people. Yes, of course you can find this in a city, but you also find so much more. Most cities carry there own energy, poise and prestige about them, which I correlate with the Swiss design throughout Zhang's piece. I think Zhang uses both design techniques to successfully create a virtual walk through a cityscape.

Zhang explains her reasoning for creating in both grunge and Swiss style in her artist statement. She grew up in Shanghai and has spent a considerable amount of time traveling from city to city throughout the world. Zhang has spent most of her life in the city culture and has found that "beneath its chaotic appearance, exerts the highly ordered movements of urbanites and vehicles." I believe this directly relates to how I spoke about how the perception of a city can seem chaotic and dirty, there is really an energy and poise running throughout the city that makes it thrive. Rarely can something thrive without organization, which I believe Zhang represents through her usage of symbols and clean-cut shapes in The City Speaks.

I felt the last portion of the animation posed an incredible question that forces us to think about our surroundings and how we relate to them. You see the character start out as an illustration who gets on the train to go home. Others with him on the train are represented as anonymous vector images of people. You watch as the character and fellow riders trek along on the track until eventually the character appears to stand up to walk over and sit down with the rest of the anonymous people. In doing so, the character becomes a vector image himself and we lose him in a blindness of fading vertical stripes to end the animation.

Having the experience of living in a big city, even just for a short while, I felt a connection with this Zhang's animation. I often trotted down the steps from my flat to the city streets, where I would either stroll along or briskly walk, depending on if it were a week day or not. Having never lived in a city before, I felt a bit overwhelmed and confused in the beginning. I often found myself frustrated because I was lost for the umpteenth time or because I just missed the train I needed to catch to be on time for work. Though I do not get a sense of urgency from the character in The City Speaks, through the use of Zhang's symbols, I do get the understanding that there are certain things that stay consistent from place to place that one can rely on to help them out in life.

Zhang explains this consistency beautifully in her statement:

"I started to notice that no matter where I went, I could move through that area very fluently by recalling my previous urban experience in Shanghai, even without knowing the local language. The things that helped me evoke the city culture are public signs and the similar appearance of architecture. These similar visual elements are the "keys" for me to understand the urban mode of living.


It's interesting to think about the world and how we are so connected, even when we may live thousands of miles apart, speak different languages, look different, etc. There are many universal things, such as signs or body language, that one can rely on when traveling throughout the world. Zhang is saying that as she traveled through different cities throughout the world that she had never been to before, she still found similarities and was able to navigate because of these universal signs. In graphic design, these are called way-finding symbols - symbols to show people how to get from one place to another, no matter what language you speak.

Me/We: an exhibition of collaboration

Title of Exhibition: Me/We [an exhibition featuring collaborations by: brian barr + lynn crawford, dick goody + adrian hatfield, cynthia greig + nate morgan, tom phardel + laith karmo]
Curator: unknown (maybe Monica Bowman - director of gallery)
Institution: The Butcher's Daughter
Title of Art: unknown
Artist: unknown
Date Created: 2011
Dimensions: ??

Borders & Frontiers: Fortune's Daughter

First and foremost, I would like to state that I am blown away with all of the works of art in the Oakland University Art Gallery's current exhibit "Borders and Frontiers: Collage and Appropriation in the Contemporary Image." I am not only attracted to this exhibit for the talent, detail and color, but I have always been a fan of immersing myself in collage in both practice and study.

I was particularly intrigued by Mark Wagner's money collages, with their incredible detail and unique shapes within. At first glance, I didn't notice what the collage was created with but loved the flowing lines and contrasts within the works. Upon closer inspection, I began to realize what I was looking at: an incredible amount of meticulously cut one dollar bills that were assembled to mean something other than what every American has ever seen them as.

In Wagner's work Fortune's Daughter (2004), the artist disassembled the US currency to form a beautifully detailed nude woman engulfed with beautiful floral designs near the bottom of her feet framed between architectural archways. Different sections of the dollar are used to create contrast between shaded and lighted areas, as well as to create distinctions between the different elements within the artwork (human form, flowers, frame). The flow of the lines within the daughter's body is one of the most interesting aspects of the artwork to me. They almost resemble what you would see if you were looking at the muscles on the inside of the human body. The size of Fortune's Daughter adds to the life-like human form, at a good six feet or so in height and two to three feet wide.

I took the time to get good and close to this work and noticed the beautiful and incredible detail in the flowers and background around the nude woman and was completely enthralled. Though the lines and shapes are beautiful and detailed from afar, I find myself most attracted to this floral work. The circle is the most beautiful and perfect shape and I enjoy how Wanger has created such beautiful shapes out of the common dollar bill.

This section of the work is just one small detail from the large. When you get up close to Wagner's Fortune's Daughter, you see the meticulously stripped bills and the interweaving and precise placement of each piece. The whole is transformed into smaller wholes of themselves. Though Wagner uses paper in collage, the appearance of seamless flowing lines traveling throughout the piece is reminiscent of Van Gogh's post-impressionist "Starry Night" painting style.

One could look at this piece, or any of Wagner's money collages really, and make connections with Marxism, postmodernist, feminist, or consumerist theories within the art field. The greatest connection to theory I can create to is either with the Marxist theory or the feminist theory. Marxism can be understood in light of the materials of which the collage is created: US currency. It could be seen as a social commentary on how the porn industry is one of the most profitable businesses in the world.

A feminist point of view, which is the connection I lean toward, is perhaps seen through the subject matter of the collage and what makes up that subject: a nude woman assembled with dollar bills. One could comment on how women are undervalued in American society and generally make less money than men, even when in the same position. Another argument could be made that women with nice bodies, or who exploit their bodies, tend to make more money within many industries.

Though I can understand many theories and comments made upon this work in such a context, I find myself looking at Fortune's Daughter and appreciating it for it's pure human form and the meticulous detail and time put into creating it. I am in awe of the thought and planning of this work and have great respect and admiration for Mark Wagner, with his patience and creative eye. I am a huge fan of creating and viewing collage works and his work shows me a side of the art form that I had never been exposed to before. I only hope to gain such patience and craftsmanship within my own work as I develop as an artist.

CYNTHIA GREIG Subverting the (un)Conventional

Title of Exhibition: Cynthia Greig: Subverting the (un)Conventional
Curator: Dick Goody
Institution: OU Art Gallery
Title of Art: Reclining Nude (revised Velazquez)
Artist: Cynthia Greig (American)
Date Created: 1993
Dimensions: ??

Cynthia Greig's solo exhibition on display at the OU Art Gallery (curated by Dick Goody), Subverting the (un)Conventional, mixes many medias, including photography, video, painting, and drawing. Though the work spans over decades worth of creation, Cynthia seems to maintain an underlying structure throughout her work and deals with identification and perception throughout all of her series.

I felt an immediate reaction when viewing Cynthia's Revised Nudes, not only by of the sheer size but also for the subject matter. When reflecting upon these pieces, many immediately notice the historical references and replications of classic masterpieces. Cynthia replicates the masterpieces well in environment and subject positioning. She also does a beautiful job at incorporating parts of the original paintings into her own work. This creates a subtle collage effect, but I am not sure whether the incorporation comes during or in post-production.


Daring to replicate such classics within your own conceptions deals with matters of appropriation. In her piece, Reclining Nude (revised Velazquez) (1993), not only are the elements appropriated (the same placement of objects, red drapes, mirror, position of nude, etc), but her choice of incorporating images from the earlier work brings up even deeper questions of ownership and originality. Who is the "owner" of the image? What is the original? Is Cynthia's work original because it does not attempt to be an exact replica of earlier pieces? Even if it was an exact replica, does this not constitute a consideration of originality? I mean, she still would have been the one to create those particular brush strokes or press the trigger to capture a photographic image.

How Greig's Revised Nudes series deals with appropriation, time and perception is of particular interest for me, not just through a historical context but a personal one as well. I have also reflected upon historical masterpieces and have dealt with matters of appropriation and perception within my own work. In 2009, I created a series of photographs in which I placed myself within a historical masterpiece. I see many similarities between Cynthia's work and mine. As Cynthia incorporated parts of the original painting within her work, I also did. The two works are also both based off of historical masterpieces involving the nude form. As I reflect upon the two works, I begin to consider appropriation even further. Is my work considered more appropriated than Cynthia's since mine was created at a later date? Can something even be "more appropriated"?

Greig's decision to replace the traditional female figure in the original masterpieces with male figures is a bold decision to address matters such as gender and identity. In her response to Dick Goody's question of "What are you telling us with your interpretations of these historical masterpieces?", she explains that this series of work addresses how visual traditions and media has a deep impact on how society established their norms and perceptions of the world. By placing a male figure where we are conditioned to expect a female, we are challenged to consider whether this is grotesque and anymore wrong/right than having the traditional female nude in it's place.


I admit that when I first viewed these works, I was taken aback by the use of the male nude figure. This is something I've noticed about myself when I encounter other such works. Revised Nudes confronted me with these reactions once again. However, as opposed to previous experiences, I took that reaction and began to question it. Why did seeing a male nude in place of the female startle me? Why did I view it as more of a perversion of art? As I read the blurbs accompanying Cynthia's work, I began to understand the answer: visual images really do have a powerful impact on society and what we consider acceptable.