Andrea K Lawson
Visual Artist

Blog

I finally made it to the Bellevue art museum last week and saw several impressive shows including Walter McConnell's Itinerant Edens.  Wow! What a rule changer. Who knew that a clay artist could  show their work wet without firing? It takes a few minutes to figure out what is going on in this exhibit but once you peer at the work behind the shower-like curtains , it's an amazing experience, one that almost gave me chills.

http://www.bellevuearts.org/media/4199/ezgifcom-video-to-gif.gif

The large clay figures are cast from plaster molds  of live models, made by 3d scanner located at Cornell University, very tech-savvy. The figures are imposing and a little creepy,  but don't move me as much as the moist slippery plant forms which I adore. The moisture inside the curtains, creates living molds which add to the strange tactility of the work.  Questionably, the artist's statement mentions a dialogue between analog and  technical digital art  as the meaning of the show.  As contemporary artists, we are all part of that dialogue as more technology is developed and used,  but other than the use of digital form casting,  I don't see the work itself asking this question at all. Does anyone else? Please comment if you have seen the show. When it gets down to it, it's the visceral and emotional reaction that is important to me in a work of art, not the intellectually based description.  On a less esoteric note, how on earth does McConnell manage to transport these huge wet clay installations!

It's closing soon if you want to see it.

http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions

http://www.waltermcconnell.com/itinerant-edens/