Review: Photography and Sculpture by Scott McFarland and Manfred Permice

This is a review of the simultaneous exhibition of a two well-respected artists right close to me some 30 minutes away from me at Regen Projects Gallery, Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles.








On entering the gallery, in the reception hall we're greeted by a huge panoramic scene stretching from bare red rocks and pines on the left to a snowed-in landscape with red rock visible at runoffs. This work by McFarland is a well-executed, seamless creation using photographs shot at different seasons. In a trompe l'oeil, we think it's real! This "Simultaneous Contrast" pervades all his work, but in different ways. In the main gallery room, (which, BTW, is stark white, well lit and cavernous), there's more of the Photographer work.





We immediately notice around the huge space, similar pictures, stacked, one above the other. On the top, a B&W composition and below a version in color. That's how it seems. The idea id that the artist can explore and share with us the same concept in contrasting media. Also, within each picture, the contributing elements were never there at the same time as everything is constructed in a collage.




The pictures pairs are not in each case exactly the same in their contributing elements. Here careful examination will reveal that the scene outside the window is different. I guess the artist wanted a happy blue sky in the color version. To me, black and white photography, at it's best, at least for classical work of the first 100 years, has been to take advantage of tonalities, shapes, gestures and textures and our brains have no need for color to fully enjoy the work. Here this unique picture provides a premonition of our subsequent visit to see Bernard Pernice's collections of items in his sculptures. All over the walls in this composition, Scott MacFarland's twin pictures above, we have an odd assembly of parts of human limbs, perhaps of plaster, boots, flowers and other oddities hanging from the white walls with rope or chains. There's a wooden crutch leaning on the, (surprisingly internally-placed), iron bars on the windows. Perhaps this is a workroom for prostheses for patients. Were the bars added by the artist?Perhaps, but we can't know as the technique he uses doesn't give this away to my quick examination! Does the color image deliver a different impression. Well, perhaps on revisit, that will be more apparent. Still, both versions are impressive and seem to carry messages of significance in the collections of items.



This next pair takes us to New Orleans and the most celebrated restaurant, Galatoires. Those who visit the USA should add this to their itinerary.

"Founded in 1905 by Jean Galatoire, this infamous address distinguished itself on Bourbon St. from its humble beginning. From the small village of Pardies, France, Jean Galatoire brought recipes and traditions inspired by the familial dining style of his homeland to create the menu and ambiance of the internationally-renowned restaurant. In its fifth generation, it is the Galatoire family and descendants who have carried the tradition of New Orleans’ fine dining restaurants and influenced its evolution."​

These two photographs are warm and open and huge enough to get one believe one is actually looking in at the staff being fed. These two pictures are so different. The black and white picture is superbly crafted with the two jackets, one black and one white on the right balancing the white shirted black figures seen in the mirror from a table behind us. We feel that we are actually there live while this is all happening and not for a moment did we miss color in appreciating the photograph.

The balance of the color picture is entirely different. We see one reflected figure on the left and one in front of us on the right eating. The woman on the right is turned to her left, (and our right), away from the mirror and so opens up the path for our eyes to go deeper in the image. Still, it's as if she pauses as her picture is taken. We don't see anything active, just a suspension of time. That gives this picture a haunted feeling as if we have frozen her and she still might be there, waiting to be released.


Visit the entire collection from this exhibit at the REGEN PROJECTS website, here.

The REGEN PROJECTS current exhibition is on until August 16th 2014. The gallery is located at 6570 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90038, 310-276-5424 Admission is free.

In the back gallery, equally as impressive, there's the exhibition of the well-travelled German Architectural Scatter-Art Sculptor, Manfred Pernice and his really challenging and interesting work.

Pernice exhibits in many fine galleries in worldwide. This exhibition, "BBreiland", is his 4th solo exhibit at Regen Projects.


"Everything lies on the floor in cassettes, the light hangs low – here, also plants (crops) are looked after – a series of tests to investigate resistance. A sorting system to identify useful material – or at least in the sense of (waste) separation, to determine the value of each element. When this research is completed, it can be hung on a wall| In a small room, works of art are exposed to radiation (limits of endurance)."

And of course, this 'matter' also serves a good cause: 20% of the revenue benefits the 'Bbreiland-kooperative' which was founded on 05/15/12 (and which appears here as the courtesy of the organizer). Bbreiland'koop supports leisure facilities in Spain and southern Sweden, organizes street parties and helps young painters in the procurement of work material (canvas, linseed oil, chalk, etc.).

On view will be an updated re-staging of Pernice's Pezzi, an exhibition first realized at Anton Kern Gallery in New York in 2012." Regen Projects Press Release


So lets go over the layout. The arrangement is worth examining in the pictures below. There are 4 kinds of setups. As in other installations by this artist, there's a pervasive use of pressboard or plywood to make rectangular cases to contain the artist's arrangements of common objects he's chosen to assemble together. The construction of the containers is utilitarian, in that the boxes on the floor and at table height are open at above so as to allow sorting or checking the arrangement. The one's on the walls, are closed by glass and several have shelves.


1. A black office chair by a small refrigerator-like metal cabinet on a rug by a white wall and the words BBrelilland.com in cursive script about 4-5 ft up on the on the wall

This seems to orient the exhibit to a setting the artist remembers, but there are no guides to inform us what this might be. The words on the wall are related to the statement that proceeds of the installation go in part of support the organization BBreilland Koop which provides community facilities in Spain and Sweden. (The website, however, is not updated in recent years, but if we can find more information on its activities, we'll amend this.) Likely, for followers of Manfred Pernice, this exhibit is so well known that no explanations are needed. I would not need any explanation looking at Picasso's Guernica or Richard Learoyd's "Presences", as these works have entered into my sense of treasures that I refer to often. Likely as not, followers of Pernice, are as familiar with his idioms and are able to just recognize the works and renew their attachment to his voice and statements through what he has assembled here.




and here's the original setup with a white chair and the small fragment of rug, arranged differently and the inclusion of a black wavy wire when this was originally staged in New York at the Kern Gallery in 2012 under the title of Pezzi



Perhaps the difference in chair and the presence of the wire don't matter and the gestalt of it all comes from the general assemblage and exactness in not needed for the syntax of the message.



2. 4 Large rectangular boxes set out on the ground, 2 painted, one pink and black the other white




3. Other rectangular boxes on stands at approximately table height





4. Display boxes mounted on the wall.




Unlike the later works of Picasso, which are abstract, or Learoyd, which are simple, timeless and beautiful, or Scott McFarland's accessible photographic collages, Pernice does not talk to us in a language that is immediately obvious to even a fairly educated art lover. So to understand better Pernice's work, I recommend reading about previous installations and exhibits.

From my own readings, I think the language is of memories and the items collected hold, like a Chinese pictograph, the essence of the many layers of significance, connection and memories by that object in general added to Pernice's own specific experiences, stories he's heard, exhibitions he's given and even the presence of people he's never met looking at the exhibition. So as this exhibit travels, likely as not, it becomes richer to Pernice, but even more hard to decipher by everyone else.

I felt that just studying the entire exhibition and each unique box of assembled objects, one is forced to ask questions about one's own relationships to things, past events, travels, memories and how we choose to remember through objects or, (by clearing out the "stuff of those no longer valued), we erase memories. It turns out that we also use objects to write down our own summaries of of what we think our life and relationships constitute. We also sort, save, throw out and so recreate "a strictly edited version" of what we like to think of our "reality". Perhaps that is part of what Pernice seeks to tall us, but that can only be a very small part of his conversation.

Art is for your enjoyment! Do so and thrive!


Asher

I was particularly interested in the glass-covered cases on the wall.


This particular vertical case has just a few shelves and is remarkably empty. So whatever is being stated, the objects inside are sufficient for the statement of the artist or perhaps, the vacant space is a significant consideration in unlocking the mystery of this statement. One thing for sure, part of what one sees in the almost empty showcase is one's own reflection, see this tendency here



Anyone who is familiar with Pernice's work or else "scatter art", please feel free to add your explanations.


Asher