The Vid and the Whale

Robin Rice on Visual Art


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Published: Jun 16, 2009

Will Brown

Four Philadelphia artists who have collaborated with the Fabric Workshop are showing their solo prowess this summer.

The most appealing is Tristin Lowe's 52-foot felt whale (pictured) inspired by the albino sperm whale Mocha Dick, which was also the model for Moby Dick. Softened by its fabric exterior, Lowe's inflatable off-white armature transforms a balloon into an imposing yet dignified mass.

The exterior is thick, soft and textured with occasional lines of stitching and a sprinkling of molded felt barnacles. The gracefully scalloped tail is especially attractive. A chunky felt pillow is thoughtfully provided for visitors to have a feel.

The most fashionable works are Ryan Trecartin's anarchic videos. In the "The Generational: Younger Than Jesus" exhibit at New York's New Museum this summer and in larger, more elaborate installations at the FWM, Trecartin's showing three related but nonlinear pieces, each in its own gallery. Framing each projection, higgledy-piggledy prop furniture (some recognizably from Ikea) mingles with scattered items, like a bag labeled "I am not a plastic bag." Trecartin's identifiable themes include gender and identity issues, the economy and language. A rotating roster of physically attractive amateurs, including the artist, his friends and colleagues, constantly rebrands characters. Expressive makeup and bad wigs provide character continuity.

A looming auteur, self-conscious props, multiple actors playing the same over-the-top characters and fragmented repetitious dialogue suggest last year's Synecdoche, New York (loved by critics, ignored by audiences), as well as every Fellini film ever made. All superimpose recursive tropes, themes and characters.

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But Trecartin's characters are limited to plush toy dogs or twentysomethings. The videos are visually canny, crisp and engaging. Inscrutable dialogue — digitally altered, contextually unanchored, cliché-laden — sparkles with occasional verbal gems (i.e. "personality drug samples").

The images are amusing, but tedious: One determined viewer could take only a bit more than an hour sampled from the total two and a half. These three pieces are said to be installments on a projected seven-part piece. You're gonna need a lot of popcorn — and maybe drugs.

The most magical and flawed piece at the FWM is Peter Rose's Pneumenon, a two-channel video with two layered scenes. One is projected on a curtain periodically tossed aside by an artificial breeze to reveal another projection. The lovely gesture and idea of overlaid visions is satisfying, but ouch! A painfully bright light pierces the viewer's visual field at the moment one veil of illusion lifts. At this awful moment, we are pinned between projections and a mirror. Is this a technical flaw or what the artist desires? More likely, he wants us to contemplate multiple, co-existing visions, not the reality of looking into the glare of a projector. On the other hand ... maybe Rose does want us to experience the relentless machinery of artifice behind the "real tinsel."

The most predictable works are Virgil Marti's. "Predictable" doesn't mean disappointing; rather, Marti maintains the high standard we've come to anticipate since the revelation of his early Bullies flocked wallpaper, now displayed in a storefront connected to the FWM's adjacent New Temporary Contemporary gallery space.

The recent highlight among several Marti wall treatments is a trompe l'oeil white-on-white swag pattern suggesting oversize scalloped Austrian blinds. Additional elements of décor in this gallery include floral relief elements and free-hanging curtains, both made of bones.

Several poufs are composed of upholstered segments, each in a different fabric. Each pouf reveals a lusciously different color palette. Any question about whether they are "art" or "design" is resolved if someone tries to sit on them: A curt reprimand protects "art." But Trecartin's video installations are thankfully not "art" — people are allowed to sit there while watching them. At any rate, one person did.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Tristin Lowe, Virgil Marti, Peter Rose and Ryan Trecartin | Through summer 2009, Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1214 Arch St., 215-561-8888, fabricworkshopandmuseum.org