caitlin arnold

hello friends. i’m proud to say i have curated another show with my friend emily green. johalla projects is up and running and long hand will open saturday december 5th at 6pm. here’s the info.

Johalla Projects presents Long Hand, a group exhibition curated by Caitlin Arnold and Emily Green. Featuring sculpture, photography and fiber, Long Hand brings together seven artists whose conceptual work involves lengthy manual processes. With the constant inundation of the virtual into our everyday lives, these artists return to reality and the use of their physical bodies in the creation of their art.

Long Hand
A group exhibition of work involving meticulous process and hard labor
Curated by Caitlin Arnold and Emily Green

New work by:
Jesse Avina
Melissa Damasauskas
Matt Shaw
Alise Spinella
Julia Stotz
Peter Takamori
Casey Ann Wasniewski

Johalla Projects
1561 N. Milwaukee - 2nd flr

Opening Reception:
Saturday, December 5, 6-9pm
Exhibition runs through December 14
open Saturdays 1-5 or by appointment-
call Emily at 847.778.5946 or Caitlin at 708.280.3940
johallaprojects.wordpress.com
Beer provided by Grolsch, supporter of the arts

STATEMENT:
Long Hand presents new works by artists relying on meticulous hand-process as an integral tool in their art making. Historically the physical body was considered the primary means to experience the world and thus an obvious tool for creative production. With today’s increasingly present fixation on new technology, in which shop class is being replaced by computer labs and most Westerner’s primary experience of the world is through the lens of their computer screens, the value of skill and labor seems to be diminishing. The artists in this exhibition rely on their hands, choosing to work with laborious processes sometimes, but not necessarily relating directly to the concepts they are dealing with. They are connected by the investment of time inherent in the meticulous nature of hand-crafting. Their processes are gestures of sincerity in opposition to the stereotype of art making as spontaneous and cathartic. The work is marked with an intangible sense of the artists’ lives, working through the struggle to maintain balance between obsession and meditation, control and intuition and celebrating the imperfections of the human hand even as they strive for perfection.

Jesse Avina is interested in examining the reality and fantasy of the violence of war through its representation in Hollywood and other media. Using organic, recycled or reclaimed materials, Avina constructs elaborate models of war scenes that he then photographs or films, thus transforming himself from passive consumer to producer. Imbued with an unsettling nod to their own artificiality, his models can take months to complete and are focused less on perfect recreation and more on surface and texture.

The struggle to maintain a balance between indulgence and control is a consistent theme for Melissa Damasauskas. Lingering on her materials, often drawn from everyday life, she creates an intimacy built upon research, interaction and play. Damasauskas is almost insistent on utilizing lengthy processes and techniques that often come from a craft or construction tradition. Drawn to the polarities of the fantasy and reality of domestic spaces and activities, Entrapment of Notions and Findings, Part One reflects her preoccupation with organizing, gifting, souvenir, romance and mythology.

Matt Shaw finds comfort in the fastidiousness of his collage making process. From the initial scavenging of thrift stores for imagery to the intricate cutting out of these images and the final arrangement, Shaw dwells on the slowness of his process and the physical engagement with his tools and materials. His collages can range in complexity, but his practice remains consistent in his great attention to time and detail and concern with organization as original creation.

Alise Spinella’s poetic approach to communicating the creation of an object through written instruction is shifting with Memory Kit (For the Future): How to Locate Water to address the viewer’s interaction with the finished sculpture. Blurring the lines between the hand-made, machine-made, and nature-made, Spinella’s installations and sculptures aim to confuse the known with the unknown. Interaction and open interpretation are encouraged by Spinella’s instructions on how to play this “instrument for memory.”

With a background in photography, Julia Stotz creates one-of-a-kind books using simple materials and her photographic images. Thinking of her latest piece more as a sculpture, than as a book or photograph, Stotz reveals the structure of the book often overlooked and taken for granted. Through tedious folding of over 260 prints of the same photograph, she creates one complete image as the spine of the book. By exposing the spine in this way she places value on the structure and process of book-making and the conscious choice of exhibiting her work in book form.

Peter Takamori draws inspiration from the photographic processes of the traditional darkroom. His work is most often concerned with self-reference and ideas surrounding photography itself. For his latest piece, Bend, Takamori takes his photographing process to an extreme, creating a single image from at least seven separate photographs- photographing the initial image of him bending a photograph, then photographing that image and so on. This obsessive re-photographing of the bent original speaks to its physicality while offering a manipulated perspective, in turn creating a confusing meditation on the medium.

Handwork is extremely important in Casey Ann Wasniewski’s practice. Wasniewski is invested in the history and inherent traits of the materials and processes she utilizes to create elaborate and detailed fiber sculptures. After hand dying wool yarn she begins a lengthy process of stitching layers upon layers of the embroidery stitch called the French knot. At one time outlawed during the Ming Dynasty for its supposed ability to cause a maker to go blind, the French knot is typically associated with the most luxurious of cloth and clothing. However, Wasniewski’s sculptures reference not the luxury of hand made textiles, but the mystery of organic growth and the beauty of the abstract.