A Glass Menagerie
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Dec. 3, 2015
“Alphabet of Flowers,” glass, by Joey Kirkpatrick (and Flora C. Mace Photo courtesy of the artists |
Seattle-based
artists Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have been working collaboratively
for almost 40 years, and in that time they have compiled a major body of work
that can be seen for the first time in a career-spanning exhibition.
Their
collaboration started at Pilchuck Glass School in 1979. Their first works grew
out of Mace's desire to incorporate Kirkpatrick's delicate line drawings on
paper as surface design on blown cylinders. Kirkpatrick made elaborate drawings
in bent wire that were colored in with glass cane. These drawings were then
"picked up" onto the vessel in the hot shop. From this beginning they
have amassed a huge repertory of glass, drawing, and mixed-media sculptural
work. Much of it is astonishingly inventive and marked by deep understanding of
human and animal interactions, inventive use of language and daring mixtures of
media.
Some of the
work, however — such as the many drawings of birds and flowers — are so common,
trite, and devoid of the kind of innovation and graphic sensitivity that marks
the rest of their work, that it is hard to believe they were done by the same
artists or that the? Museum of Glass deemed
them worthy of inclusion in a major museum exhibition. Compare the wire and
wood drawings of birds such as “Woodland Voices” or the dramatic “Owl and Wren”
with the lesser “Ten Birds,” graphite and casein on paper. It’s like comparing
Pablo Picasso with John James Audubon. One is art; the other is note taking.
The rest of the work in this large show is brilliantly conceived and skillfully
executed. There is an abundance of humor and an obvious love of nature and
facility with materials.
The
introduction to the large and impressive exhibition catalog says that
Kirkpatrick “drives a concept through drawings, while Mace’s signature
adeptness with hand tools … allows the
pair to realize their idea through groundbreaking processes.” The comingling of
the two makes for work more outstanding than probably either could do alone.
I am personally
enamored of Kirkpatrick’s drawing, be it on paper or glass. It reminds me a lot
of drawings by Picasso and Matisse. There is crispness and economy to her line
and a wonderfully staccato quality that I admire.
Their series of
tiny, translucent human heads atop long cylinders or tubes of glass are
surrealistic and haunting. The birds and other animals and human figures drawn
in space — either set on sculptural plinths of hung on walls where they cast
webs of shadows — are innovative and beautiful. Their giant glass apples and
pears and paint brushes in glasses that stand anywhere from three to five feet
tall are like slick and brilliantly colored versions of Claes Oldenburg
sculptures. Their human torsos minus heads and extremities made of tree limbs
and often combined with glass objects such as their translucent heads or
elegant glass vessels contain shades of the great surrealist sculptor Alberto
Giacometti. Human bodies become cages.
The variety of imagery and the fecundity of ideas in this show is
astounding. I find it amazing that Kirkpatrick and Mace are not more well-known
and that it has taken so long for them to be given a major survey exhibition.
Joey
Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace,
Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., through May 15, 2016, $12-$15, members
free, Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock Street Tacoma.
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