Exhibit Critique: Michael Bishop, sculptor


                                                             Michael Bishop exhibit, Shasta College Art Gallery, Redding, CA, 2005

My first reaction: Amusing. I like it!  The metals with their varying patinas are beautiful in themselves.

But after viewing the entire exhibit, I was less amused.  "One and Three", cast iron, aluminum and fabricated steel with electronic components, did strike me as amusing, but my impressions of the remainder of the works ranged from "hmmm"  to "morbid".  There is nothing "light" about this show, either in materials or content.  It speaks of heavy, underworld themes to me, and the heavy cast iron that is so much a part of the works, give a sense of the eternal to them.

I found the repeated heads that cover the walls and make up portions of the works to be morbid, like visions of the damned.  The faces portray souls that are lost,  in agony, or vacant like zombies.  The faces that cover the floor under "Plain Truth", all in neat little rows, all in the same direction, except one, make me wonder what truth is represented - perhaps that we are nothing, encased in the earth, looking perpetually upward for help?   There's at least some encouragement.

The free-standing works are the most interesting to me: the contrast in materials and loose compositions are not unpleasant to look at, though, personally, I find this kind of work to be not art, but only a collection of stuff, put together with some imagination.  I'm not uneducated concerning the ways of modern art, but do not agree that "everything is art".

Overall, the exhibit reminds me of a newly opened ancient tomb, with people important to the deceased in life, portrayed over the entire space of the walls, and objects in disarray through the settling of the earth over time.  For that reason, I find that Bishop's work is most similar to - perhaps inspired by - Egyptian art.  The sense of timelessness, the references to a calendar, the heads which stand through eternity to harbor the receptive "Ra", the permanence and darkness of the materials, the boat and oars to carry the soul forever through the afterlife...everything speaks of the Egyptian tomb, but the materials are cold and dark, and the emotions portrayed are of despair: together, they  represent an unhappy after world - souls lost forever.   Only the horse is amused!  If the Egyptian period is what inspired the artist, then he has done it very cleverly, but I'm hoping that the artist sees himself represented by the horse, high on a wall, who stands out as the one piece of light, overseeing all with amusement  -  and not by the rest of his work.

Posted by Prose and Cons at 4/11/2008 3:07 PM
Categories: Friendly Critiques of the Well-Known
 

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