Articles : The Medium is the Message

Plexus Contemporary exhibit turns media and technology into art

by Javacia Harris for Velocity Magazine

Log onto www.yyyyyyy.info and you may think something is seriously wrong with your computer. With the exception of a few passages, you'll have trouble making sense out of much of the script, as if you're trying to read in a dream. The images, upon first glance, may seem distorted or out of place. But relax. Your computer is fine. This collage of symbols, colors and images are all part of a web-based art project by San Francisco based artist Michael Guidetti.

Guidetti's work, along with pieces by several other young artists and art students from across the country, are part of Build a Fire, a new exhibit of technology-influenced art that opens Friday at Plexus Contemporary.

Build a Fire brings together artists who paint, draw, photograph and sculpt, but for this exhibit they use their skills to manipulate different forms of media and technology into art.

With "Slow Rave (last minutes of trance energy)," New York-based artist Damon Zucconi takes video footage of a rave and slows it down dramatically. The result is a dream-like sequence that could easily put the viewer in a trance of his or her own. The exhibit includes works by artists whose drawings are inspired by images from the Internet and artists who play with things like codes and GIF animations and software interfaces to create art.

"I think the public will connect to these pieces because they are presented in a way that people are used to viewing imagery. More often people are used to looking into computer and television screens for hours as opposed to a painting on the wall," said local artist Bryce Hudson, who owns Plexus Contemporary.

Hudson opened Plexus Contemporary to serve as his studio and as "an alternative art space" for exhibitions of works by emerging and established artists. The gallery focuses on collaborative and experimental projects, and Hudson pushed the envelope even by deciding to open his gallery in Portland, not in the downtown art districts of East Main and Market Streets or even Frankfort Avenue.

"I wanted to have this show when it was presented to me because I consider opening a gallery in Louisville's Portland neighborhood very progressive and at the heart of the show is very progressive forward-thinking, forward-moving work," Hudson said.

But the exhibit isn't just about technology, curator Ilia Ovechkin said.

In "Model It," artist Jacolby Satterwhite films himself vogueing. In the piece, he dances to a song created by his mother, who suffers from mental illness. The piece may address the popularity of amateur videos found on sites like YouTube, but it also explores themes of sexuality and much more.

"The common thread between these artists is that they are all comfortable with being multidisciplinary and working across media," Ovechkin said, "but the conversation becomes even more interesting when you focus on the individual works and the topics they address."

-- Javacia Harris