Author: Alexxa Gotthardt
Countless ball point pens, pots of sumi ink, 47 feet of paper and draftsmanship extraordinaire fuse together in former Middlebury artist-in-residence Dawn Clements' Travels with Myra Hudson, the latest manifestation of the Art Now series on display at the Middlebury College Museum of Art (MCMA). Clements' immense work on paper depicts the ominous environment of the 1952 thriller "Sudden Fear." Detailed representations of the scenery of this famed film noir swell across the walls of the Overbrook Gallery, covering it nearly from end to end, floor to ceiling. This solo show, made up of just a single work, is arguably one of the most impressive exhibitions to date for the fledgling Art Now series.
Art Now unlocks studio doors from Brooklyn to Bristol to Berlin to reveal a wide array of provocative contemporary art. Conceived in conjunction with the studio art department and at the encouragement of Professor of Art Jim Butler, the contemporary art series was originally established to provide a direct resource for studio art classes. In addition, the gallery allows all museum-goers to experience a variety of profound glimpses into work driven by our contemporary culture.
"The gallery gives us a great opportunity to show current art, and to connect MCMA and the art we show to the studio art department," said Chief Curator of MCMA Emmie Donadio. "As a college gallery/museum, we are committed to showing art of the present moment. It is stimulating, provocative and occasionally confrontational, but in the interest of showing living works, we feel it is essential that it be shown."
Since the gallery's opening, its walls, floor and ceiling - such is the brilliantly schizophrenic nature of contemporary art - have been decked with work by the vanguard likes of hyper-realist Joel Shapiro, video artist Tony Oursler and New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren. Each exhibition explores new mediums, new subjects and new ways of looking at our world. Travels with Myra Hudson adds still another strikingly innovative facet to Art Now's showcase of contemporary art.
Travels with Myra Hudson's large-scale format, keen attention to drawn detail and ability to transport the spectator into a new, affecting environment all define the style typical of Clements' most celebrated works - a style that Clements began developing during her time as an artist-in-residence at the College in the spring of 2000. Clements graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from SUNY-Albany in 1989, and has since found inspiration in the theme of space, both personal and that of melodramatic films and soap operas. "I used to work on my drawings at my kitchen table. I'd have the T.V. on or a videotape of a movie, just for ambient sound, maybe just for company," said Clements. "Every now and then I'd hear a line dialogue I wanted to remember and I'd just write it into the drawing. I thought of the T.V. as a kind of fantasy window in the home."
For some time, Clements worked on small-scale drawings which paired elements from her own home with characters and dialogue that she saw on screen. It wasn't until she arrived in Vermont, however, that these drawings took a new, sizeable turn. "For me, new places always encourage new work and maybe a new direction," said Clements. One night, in her new apartment on College Street, Clements made a sumi ink drawing of an upholstered chair in her living room. "When I was finished, I liked that little drawing and decided to attach some more paper," said Clements. "Before I knew it, I was drawing the whole room and eventually the whole apartment." Right on Middlebury's own campus, Clements' panoramic style was born - a seven-foot tall, 78-foot long drawing.
After her stint at Middlebury, Clements continued to explore her fascination with personal space and the space of melodramas in this new, large-scale format. "As I scan the spaces of my domestic environment [...] and as I piece together the spaces of movie environments, I become a kind of camera, recording the spaces and things [I see]," said Clements.
In Travels with Myra Hudson, Clements uses her camera alter-ego to the best of its ability. The work itself is comprised of two parts - both representations of the scenery of "Sudden Fear." The first is a ball-point pen drawing of the adjoining bedrooms of wealthy heiress and playwright Myra Hudson and her husband Mr. Blaine, the man also plotting her demise. Through its minute details, intensity of tone and especial attention to light, reflection and shadow, Clements creates an environment alive with uneasy energy. In addition, the work, though sans figural representation, implies a dynamic narrative through frenetic scribbles of dialogue, recordings of time, selected figural details and Clements' own notes.
The second portion of the piece follows this same captivating format, yet it is rendered on a much larger scale and executed in sumi ink. The viewer's eye sweeps across the immense panorama of scenes - towering bookcases transform into opulently decorated rooms, which transform into speeding train cars. Breaking from the largely horizontal flow, a massive vertical staircase dominates one wall, extending right to the viewers' feet, drawing them, whether they want to enter or not, into the captivating scene. Rich, dense blacks contrast with large white voids to create an aesthetic discordance that intensifies the dichotomy between disquiet and the sublime. In addition, Clements' mastery of shadow adds greatly to the alluringly tense atmosphere.
The riveting work raises interesting questions about the nature of personal space, fabricated versus real environment and the effect of surroundings on the psyche. All pull the viewer further into the work, an effect Clements hopes to create with all her drawings. "The large size does not really permit viewers to take in the drawing in a single glance, said Clements. To see and to read the drawing, viewers must move along with work. I hope they have experiences of traveling with me through the spaces."
Travels with Myra Hudson fully embodies the goals of the Art Now series. The work's expert rendering through drawn medium provides a splendid model and inspiration for studio art students together with its power to resonate with the contemporary viewer through both skill and conception, create incredibly innovative 'Art' that is happening 'Now.'
Clements will give a lecture on her work today at 4:30 p.m. in Johnson Memorial Building, Room 304.
Dawn Clements draws viewers into her world
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