VOL 03 ISSUE
13 
July 7, 2004
VOL 03 ISSUE
13 |
| TED STEVENS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: PUBLIC ART COLLECTION | ||||
 TED STEVENS is
Alaska's godfather of government pork, so talented and successful that Anchorage's
International Airport is named after him while he is still alive and a United States
Senator. The original projections of 1% of the budget yielded $985,000 to spend on art for
the new Concourse C, and cost overruns have swollen the total budget to $228 million.
Artists Math: .01 x 228,000,000 = $2,280,000. When the Concourse was open
to the public in late June, the centerpiece glass sculptures were represented only by the
unattributed sketch shown at right and a sample piece of glass which forms the index image
for this issue. Will the Alaska State Council on the Arts advocate for artists to
receive their full opportunities at this project? The fact that they could not or would
not provide ArtSceneAK with the name(s) of the commissioned artists (Canadian Warren Carthers) may
yield a clue. Carthers previous work can be found as far away as Tokyo and his 100 foot
glass wall in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. |
||||
 |
BLUE DAGGERS: BROWN ANGLES
The sinuous outer glazing along the 900 foot corridor illuminates
Anchorage's first moving sidewalks. Visitors using the sidewalk are captive audiences who
will be treated to Anchorage sculptor Kim Brown's Blue Daggers set at intervals
along the way. At the opening festivities, two of Brown's initial concept proposal
maquettes were shown. These were more glass than support. Unfortunately, engineers got
involved in the process and the support structures have been specified at such heavy
weight as to overwhelm the transparency which was a major charm of her original idea. The
glass triangles have become narrower, the silkscreened patterns less legible, and the
whole effect made almost menacing. Other concepts overlooked in 2000 for this challenging site included more sinuous elements, including one by Gordon Huetheri and ArtSceneAK publisher Donald R Ricker's Undulator. A similar theme was adopted for the underground hallway leading from the ARR station to the terminal, cloud like forms attached to the ceiling and edge illuminated with various patterns of colored light emitting diodes (LEDs). The subtle effects in the darkened corridor reminded many of a like design at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. . |
|||
 |
FISH EAGLE:
JACKSON CARVING A fanciful eagle carved of wood and looming over a
dwarfed carved salmon was commissioned from southeastern Alaska's Nathan Jackson.
Dramatic, humorous, authentic, and adventurous, Jackson's Fish Eagle suffers from
its installation high on the second level walls shown to the left in the rendering above.
Seams in the wall become unfortunate elements of the installation, and Eagle's direction
to the left leads the eye away from the center of the space. Arguably the piece with the
most to say, its placement gives it an air of separation from the bustling crowds. While
Jackson may not have intended this, he probably wouldn't object to a little separation
from some of the less inspired artworks and architectural details. Large format prints of various scenic views of Alaskan landscapes are strewn around the new construction, several based on photographs by Myron Wright and paid for by the Bureau of Land Management. Essentially over-scaled advertisements for Alaska, these photographs are further commercialized by sign systems and corporate advertising. The enormous prints are too large to be observed all at once in the relatively narrow hallway where they substitute for wallpaper. |
|||
 |
ALASKA NATIVE ART:ANC
HORDING Fairbanksian Wanda Chin and Juneau's late Susan Fair
contributed expertise to help make the Airport's collection of Alaskan Native art one of the most extensive in Anchorage. The
collection has been displayed in cabinets in the A and B concourses but will be
consolidated into a new area yet to be established in the new expansion. Few cabinets were
added for travelers nearing the gates, and for now a slide show featuring two projectors
is available for those with the patience and curiosity to find it, sheltered in a space
not yet leased to a franchise operation. At the public opening, a giant spiral bound
catalog of the collection was available for perusal; this same material might well be
prepared for publication and sale in the book store next to the projectors. The blue
fused glass icebergs in the planter islands in the observation deck are unattributed but
elegant. Simple in concept, the lack of acknowledgement leaves a casual observer
thinking that the work is part of the fixtures. The Airport has its own internal Art Committee headed by Rich Wilson, and is at least nominally in the market to purchase artworks or accept them as donations. |
|||
 |
ALL MY FAMILY:KELLIHER-COMBS Tucked into a corner near the observation deck stairwell, a ghostly resinous lamination of parkies form All My Family in a style typical of the Anchorage artist Sonya Kelliher-Combs. She will be working with students at the new South Anchorage High School to produce a large number (>6 dozen) of her skin-like surfaces. The airport piece is large and relieved by floral fabric designs although the pools of red resin Kelliher-Combs uses are uncomfortably bloody. The assemblage is hung like a drawing inside a glass case which impedes close inspection protectively, and a paper label accompanied the work giving the public information about artist and title. . | |||
 |
COLLABORATIVE INSTALLATION: IGCA Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Sandy Gillespie, and Rachelle Dowdy share studio space in the Spenard (natural) art district and prepared a trio exhibition at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art at D Street downtown Anchorage this month. According to Julie Decker's book IceBreakers: Alaska's Most Innovative Artists, Dowdy and Gillespie are a couple. Gillespie is Visual Arts director for the Alaska State Council on the Arts, and this show along with a planned Wells Street Gallery exhibition in Fairbanks adds up to four major exhibitions for her in the past year. Kelliher-Combs' work is earning her a growing number of enthusiastic collectors. All three women were creatively photographed for extensive publicity by Sheryl Maree Reilly and their promotional material prepared by Dawnell Smith, one of Anchorage's few reviewers of creative art. In it she describes Gillespie as 'determined not to be pigeon-holed as an arts administrator only.' This may explain why so few state % for Art projects have been consumated during her tenure, and why artists visiting the ASCA offices on Third Street so often find her out to lunch. The photo at left shows her piece Dark Green at the far left,. Dowdy's Mobile Still Life at center and a string of 28 small Secret Drawings made of thread on paper by Kelliher-Combs at right. | |||
 |
SAUNA TALK: RAW EDGES Gillespie's contributions to the trio show were largely encaustic crusted 1/2" MDO plywood boards with her typical obfuscation of meaning that begin with words or photos and diminish into somber pathos. The raw unfinished laminations of the plywood appear to be purposefully exposed, although not distinctive. Gillespie is a self-trained 'painter' who earned her MFA in Creative Writing. Her work shares a flaw with other auto-didactic pieces which are made without an apparent understanding or appreciation for the things that have traditionally bounded quality art (eg. frames). | |||
-OPPORTUNITIES- 7/9/04 deadline VSAAW NO BOUNDARIES regional show of Artists with Disabilities. Prospectus includes size limitations. Enter with slides or digital files, $20 fee. Artist's Registry is being established also. Contact Hillary Morgan 206.443.1843. 7/24/04 deadline NATIONAL OIL & ACRYLIC PAINTERS Fourteenth Annual Fine Art Competition and Exhibition THE BEST OF AMERICA! 2004 $20,000 awards, $25/slide, or membership deal Prospectus includes size limitations, emphasis on originality. Contact PO BOX 676, LAKE OZARK, MO 65049-0676 USA 7/28/04 deadline ACVB & 8th WORLD WILDERNESS CONGRESS seeks concept proposals for exterior plaza at 601 W5th Ave Anchorage. Budget $22,000. Contact Janine Amon 907 257 2315. 8/15/04 deadline CENTER ON CONTEMPORARY ART 2004 NORTHWEST ANNUAL open to all professional artists in USA, Canada, and Mexico. Juror Mike Lum, $1500 in two prizes, $25 entry fee. contact CoCA 410 Dexter Avenue Seattle WA 98109 or submit online. 8/15/04 deadline WELLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Maine seeks metal or stone
artwork, $16,000 budget. contact Donna McNeil 8/15/04 deadline MOA PUBLIC ART REGISTRY seeks to renew or remove relevant artist information, including slides, slide identification, current resumes, published materials, and SASE.. Contact Katie Bell, Public Art Program Assistant at 907-343-6473 with questions and to take part in a current survey regarding artists. 8/17/04 deadline OAC SALEM PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING ACADEMY budgeting $180,000 for two art zones on large campus. Program guidelines. Contact Meagan Atiyeh 11/1/04 ALASKA STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS ARTISTS IN THE SCHOOLS PROGRAM is accepting applications from artists with something to teach. $1000/week. Contact 907-269-6682 or use online form.
NEXT: SUN UP FEEDBACK Aggravated again?! Get a NO Prize for proving us wrong. Let us know you love us or hate us and tell us about your upcoming event or opportunity and get a No, Thank YOU. Help correct attribution errors you suspect. SHORTCUTS: When we use your 100 word reviews of any show you've seen recently, sweet and sour, you'll earn a free limo ride some First Friday. Form makes it easy. cf also ART IN ALASKA ARTISTS BEWARE: ArtSceneAK
recently received a nice letter that is a total scam: "Sir/Madam, I am a Business
woman who owns and operate a store in Nigeria, I got the previlage to tell you that there
is an exhibition coming up, but its an ART COMMUNICATION company ,so i want any of your
beautiful ARTWORK to represent a simble of art . presently I'm in the United Kingdom on a
business trip, I will like you to give me the Shipping Cost to Nigeria for the items you
have got, so i can know how long it will take this goods to arrive in my gallery in
Nigeria: This goods are needed urgently in my store. Please reply as soon as possible and
let me know the Total cost for Shipping and Handling including the tax, I will advise you
charge down as soon as you receive my Credit Card and also the shipping should be via
EMS/UPS. Best regards, |
PURPLE
SECRETS:MITTEN POUCHES Kelliher-Combs works
are also un-framed but are mounted on more traditional stretchers. She eschews canvas,
building a transparent skin from pigment and resins that is not stretched but rather
depends on its support. The translucent quality is best brought out by the white walls and
bright illumination in the gallery situation, and all of the pieces in the show feature
the mitten shape she refers to as Secrets. The theme and expanded colors are more
endearing and less macabre than her fleshier, hairier earlier works. Five Purple
Secrets I sold for $1600 at the opening, and II is still available for
perspicacious collectors who act this month. Secret Drawings are a reasonable $50
each for entry level collectors who would be wise to include Kelliher-Combs among the
artists they follow. The Gallery is kept open by volunteers mid-day during the week and
weekend afternoons for you to make your selection. Rachelle Dowdy is a recent emigre from Fairbanks whose satirical figures combine animal and human elements in a vaguely threatening form. The faces are typically self-portraits, according to the artist, and the work featured at left called Meeting MySelf in the Wild makes the subject explicit. The faces have expressions of shock, even disgust, and a viewer should not presume that the rather lovely red-headed Dowdy is literally depicted in these self-inspections. Stiff sisal hair and carved wood faces and horns invite the viewer to touch. My Wild Self is placed effectively in front of one set of display windows fronting the street and the two heads are instrumental in attracting visitors into the gallery. This simple retail rule of display is often overlooked in other exhibitions. Directors Don Decker, Dr Julie Decker, and Don Mohr accept proposals for exhibitions in any of the three spaces forming the gallery at any time during the year. Their policy is defined by their professed effort to play an important role in stimulating the creation of artwork. They feel that they have the power to 'give the artists permission, excuse, freedom or deadline they need to create.' and 'artists are not judged solely by the quality of their work, but also by their narrative'. Submit slides and statements to IGCA, PO Box 101403, Anchorage AK 99510. ICE WALLS: TACHA THREATENED Attorneys for the government and ngo's are increasingly advising their clients to require Alaskan artists to sign statements waiving their VARA rights. This is reprehensible, but there you have it. To get the work, give up your rights (granted by Congress) and pee in a cup. Empty your beaker in the BACK ISSUE Index.
Thank you and Welcome to a new subscriber in downtown Anchorage. A visitor writes:: "Everytime I try to get in I can't! I typed in "guest" where it says anonymous...is that correct?" No, thank you. ArtSceneAK programmers request that you register one time if you wish to receive the guest password so that we can build a permission based list. You will be sent to the BACK ISSUE index whether or not you send the permission email. (Some browsers may suppress or question the mark-up language that prepares the email for you to send.) When you are sent the password, you can click the Guest button (second from the top) to go through the two prompts. It will be less clumsy someday if they figure out a more elegant scheme. Andy Sonneborn follows up with word about the Seward Paint-Out: "Just a heads-up for those of you who are planning to do this great (I hope) trip...get your rooms SOON. GREAT NEWS: Resurrect Art Gallery and Coffee house will have a show for us. We will hang it before noon on Sunday, and the reception will be from 2-4p.m., which should give folks time to get to their various destinations afterwards. We can leave the work there for a spell to be later determined. There is quite a good traffic flow through this nice little place. They do take a commission but a reasonable one, and they like art." and this: "Several of the Seward Paint-outers are planning to continue the adventure in Homer from the night of the 25th through the 29th. Some who can't make it to Seward will join us in Homer, and I want to make sure that anyone who might be able to make that leg of the trip knows about it." --- Andy Sonneborn The CAE Defense fund
sent word: "Professor Steve Kurtz was charged today by a federal grand jury in
Buffalo, New York--not with bioterrorism, as listed on the Joint Parisian artist Sylvie, Le
Princeau de l'Arches, sent this reply to ArtSceneAK.com's ArtYouLike question about what a
visitor might like to purchase or commission in the way of art: "l'unique beauté
d'un instant, ou le charme d'une vie?" Wouldn't that be nice? ArtSceneAK
congratulates Sylvie on her invitation from the Comitato Scientifico to participate in the
fifth Florence Biennale in December 2005. |
|||
text & photos © 2004 Exegy.com; artist's works pictured ©2004 to artists credited.
The redoubtable artist Athena Tacha designed and built the maze of glass blocks titled Ice
Walls in the pool of the present museum atrium in 1984. Ralph Appelbaum, hired
to help design the exhibition 'brand' for the museum expansion in 2004, felt he was
expressing the popular will when he stated recently rather flatly: "The fountain
has to go." Planners may understand that Tacha recently was a panelist on
the 
