Last Chance

Catch it or Regret It

by Holly Otterbein

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Published: May 19, 2009

Often times, an artist's statement seems more like a poem about inspiration than a true examination of what her art is about, or even what it looks like. (Stumble across a Pollock-esque, abstract painting that supposedly depicts Buddhism, and you'll know what I mean.) Jon Olivieri's prints, paintings (pictured) and videos are different. Inspired by his time in Iceland, his work resembles the seismic activity and violent floods he encountered there — multicolored, spaghetti-like noodles burst wildly through white grids with the same vigor that volcanic lava climbs up through the Earth. Olivieri says his work mirrors the "brute physical becoming of the Earth's anatomical structure." His claim is hardly hyperbole.

In this group show, which aims to examine how our world is simultaneously made more dull and more fantastic through technology, two artists stand out: Matthew Conradt and Lee Heekin. The former, who works with collage, draws attention to the things that we discard either individually or as a society — parking lots, grassy fields, blighted homes. Rendered in cutup scraps, Conradt emphasizes the slow decay of these items. Heekin, a sculptor, creates beautifully geometrical wooden works and wax-light boxes. Her obsession with grids and order, which pops up even in her structures that look like they're about to fall apart, mimic the Information Age's reliance on hard-line mathematics.

When Andrew Gorell, who plays three different characters in Macbeth, took to the stage last Sunday, he began with a caveat. “Our lighting is not working,” he said. The crowd grumbled. “But Shakespeare didn’t have lighting! He worked by candlelight or sunlight. This is all the more authentic.” Indeed, director Carmen Khan’s stripped-bare, three-actor work may be the most true-to-the-original play the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre has put on in years — the minimalistic makeup, costumes and staging hardly look like something out of this century. But the adaption, which was made to function while traveling to faraway high schools, still works. Mary Tuomanen’s Lady Macbeth is especially effective — she’s as easy to hate as ever, even without lighting.

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