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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 17, 2006
PRESS CONTACT:
Andrea Potochniak
607 254-4563
arp37@cornell.edu
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Presents
Dangerous Waters: Three Solo Shows
Artists Don Doe, Dylan Graham, and Sally Smart
bring to life pirates and the open seas;
all three to give free public talks at the Museum
Ithaca, NY—The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents Dangerous Waters: Three Solo Shows, on view from September 1 to October 22, 2006.
Dangerous Waters brings together the work of Australian artist Sally Smart, Dutch artist Dylan Graham, and North American artist Don Doe, who share similar concerns about globalization and new identities. Their work is linked by an iconography of maritime themes that simultaneously engage the languages of Romanticism and popular culture.
“Using images of frigates in full sail, flags flying high in the wind, and swashbuckling pirates in colorful costumes, the works featured in Dangerous Waters concern themselves with a different world,” said Andrea Inselmann, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Johnson Museum. “These three artists revive the Romantic spirit seen in the current popular imagination, with pirates symbolizing the subversion of authority and the rejection of accepted social mores.”
Sally Smart has created gallery-size installations for the past ten years using cutting, staining, sewing, stitching, collage, and photomontage. Her new installation at the Johnson Museum, The Exquisite Pirate (Coral Sea), is the most recent incarnation of a project the artist has been developing since 2004, which began with the question of whether or not women pirates existed, and then uses the image to upset our expectations of sexual roles. Smart will be in residence for five days to install her piece at the Johnson, and will speak about her work on Wednesday, August 30 at 5:15 p.m.
Dylan Graham addresses colonialism and immigration in intricate paper cutouts of frigates and maps, metaphors for conflict and refuge-seeking. Graham not only incorporates imagery culled from many folk traditions, his technique itself is modeled on the Mexican folk art papel picado, which in turn is a blend of Asian and Hispanic influences. Cutting paper to minute details involves painstaking craftsmanship and intensity appropriate for the loaded relationships that Graham illustrates in his installation, Conquests & Endeavors. Graham will speak about his work on Thursday, September 14 at 5:15 p.m.
In his installation of watercolors and paintings of women pirates, Heroines & Hellions, Don Doe critiques the male gaze while addressing complex issues related to authorship. Spoofing kitschy illustration, crossing the boundary between high art and pulp fiction, Doe’s work proposes a new sexual identity as it displays a bawdy sense of irony.
At once sexist and feminist, real and surreal, unsettling and seductive, Doe’s fiercely independent pirate chicks are in control of the male gaze, empowering (most) female viewers while putting (some) male spectators on edge. Doe will speak about his work on Thursday, September 28 at 5:15 p.m.
The Johnson Museum has a permanent collection of over 30,000 works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The museum building was designed by I. M. Pei. Funds for the building were donated by Cornell alumnus Herbert F. Johnson, late president and chairman of S C Johnson. The building opened in 1973.
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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, located on the campus of Cornell University, is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. The Museum is completely accessible for mobility-impaired visitors, and a wheelchair is available in the lobby. Metered parking is available in the lot next to the Museum. For more information, please call 607 255-6464. Visit the Museum’s website at www.museum.cornell.edu. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art is a proud member of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail: www.DiscoveryTrail.com.
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