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Vignettes / Tahoma
Gretchen Bennett May 31, 2011
Text: Chris Doyle in Gretchen Bennett’s Governors Island Studio 2010:
The jpeg and YouTube source material is important, because it rescues things from a meaningless life of repetition. These things are being pulled out of the stream, and folded into a new narrative.
The Windfall Alphabet letters read in space as letters; they have dimension. There is an overall vibe suggested in this work, to do with craft and craftsmanship.
In this work, there is a complexity of translation. Rematerializing the John Ruskin “Twigs” neutrally exposes the process of obsessive translation. This is a process of translating the meaning away, rather than towards, so it takes the material many steps away from its origin, becoming something else.
The new meanings connect to the foundness of the materials. The work shows an interest in not knowing where they came from, and the desire to experience and cause a disconnect, rather than a connect. The art references don’t matter, either. These could’ve been more personal or random, but in the end, it’s both of those. The disjointed state the viewer is left with is the intended condition.
Even the Windfall stick font is taken from an incredible web of connection and disjointed from it. It’s intentionally separated from its original intent and content, to become strange, and suggestive of an alternate civilization. This is the reason the Internet is so important; in dipping into this culture, alien to the artist, she doesn’t know what her limitations are, what they should be. This is not about misunderstanding, but reunderstanding; moving away from and strengthening what the work is moving towards. This happens in steps and becomes a language.
How does one evaluate the success of these objects? The hope is that the fervor involved in the process shows through. For that to happen, the process of observation, collection and reconfiguration must be like religion. It must come from a similar power and sense of beauty. The power comes from this same dedication, carrying the same devotional aspects. This comes through with the twig font, they have an artifactual quality.
Drawing installation and Charcoal Stick Alphabet After Paul Thek 2011 for solo exhibition at Vignettes Seattle
Photos: Frank Huster