| |
 The titles, which
complete the work, are
lifted from
the encyclopedia of misery.
Lisa
Buck, Melancholic 'Hindsight'
Shows Surprising Insight.
| The
OC Weekly |
|
Rebecca
Schoenkopf
|
|
| "Dying
on the Vine
features a split-pea green facade
with a baby's wooden block in the
window. It might be manipulative;
it might be smaltzy, All I know
is, thinking about it later, I
wanted to cry. Of course, without
the title, it would be mirely
inscrutable." |
|
|
| |
|
|
| "...Trial
by Fire is probably
the most interesting piece.
Against a coppery background,
small twigs bar the small window
and form a prison cell as the nub
of a burnt candle drips wax down
the face of the work. I'm always
happy to see some good paeans to
Joan of Arc." |
|
|
Monochromatic
Message
Shirle
Gottlieb Long Beach Press
Telegram
"Conceptual in content,
these monochromatic paintings all feature
highly textured surfaces that are
achieved from a mixture of plaster,
acrylic, and polymer. Smith then embeds
found objects directly into the matrix,
or places them in recessed apertures that
act as miniature stages."
"Though all the work is
intriguing from a conceptual point of
view, people will get different
inferences or meanings depending on how
they relate to it. That is exactly
Smith's intention."
"Are Smith's paintings
really art? In our amorphous post- modern
world where culture, economy, politics
and aesthetics all cry for your attention
- the answer is a resounding 'yes'."
µ
"I
haven't seen Smith's work yet,
but it sounds like a Jumpstart on
the caffeinated art scale -
you'll need a four-shot just to
keep from sobbing out loud or
curling up fetal on the
couch."
Inigo
Jones, The
'Catalyst'. Caffeinated Art.
"I'd hang one of
his pieces in my home. Especially
the one where the little locked
door, so intriguingly bloodied,
makes one want to open it - and
go inside."
George
Metivier, The
Missing Link. 'Alternative
Perception'.
"You are already
Inside"
Linda
Yoon, Darks Art
Parlour. 'Unveiled'.
|
|
|
"Smith's work
undercuts the severe look of
minimalism with the inclusion of
objects like a single domino in a
small recession off-centered on a
canvas. Donald Judd meets Joseph
Cornell."
-
"Like a polite but
rambunctious child, the work in
this show wants to do something
more than pretend to be
well-behaved, cultured and
proper."
James
Scarborough,
'Uncooperative Abstraction'
at The Project Box in association
with ArtWeek.
"Smith's career
deals with the subjective context
of perception, as with these
small staged constructs and their
presentation of the found
object."
-
"Smith suggests
that there is more to perception
- than to have perceived."
Mark
Sasway,
'Alternative Perception' At
Portfolio.
|
Melancholic
'Hindsight' Shows Surprising Insight at
Portfolio
Lisa Buck The
Downtown Gazette
"The title of
the exhibition is itself melancholic: 'Hindsight'
meaning "I figured it out too
late", is a solo exhibition by WL
Smith at Portfolio Gallery. At first
glance a show of tidy minimalist
abstractions that proclaim their own
objecthood with a brash attention to
surface and substance, the work soon
reveals its quiet sorrow.
My favorite
pieces are those into which is
cut a neat, rectangular niche.
Into the niche Smith parks a
small dead object of little
importance. Benign
Neglect, the color
of grimy terra-cotta, hosts an
old, corroded sprinkler head that
stares at the viewer with a mute
ineffectiveness.
The
canvases, if that's what they
are, have the thickness and
weight of a chunk of wall. They
are tough, heavy and hard, like
rock or cement, an impression
Smith creates by building up the
surface with impasto, glazes and
pigments. |
|
|
The titles which complete
the work, are lifted from the
encyclopedia of misery. It is not the
kind of suffering that yells out in
agony, however, but the dull ache of
eternal damnation.
|
|
|
Like Triage
and Judgment and
Ignorance, they
describe the underbelly of the
human condition.
Trial
by Fire is as grim
as a life sentence in a forgotten
dungeon. Colored the brown of
rain-soaked rock, the painting
encloses an extinguished candle
behind a rusted fence. Little
drips of wax dribble from the
cell, lending an element of
pathos to this metaphor for
resignation. |
Looking like a slab of
smog-corroded marble, Compromise
houses an old high-intensity light bulb
and is wrapped in barbed wire. Where the
barbs touch the surface, there are little
red gashes that look like wounds.
Bleeding rock in bondage. I love it.
Despite the tone of gloom
and woe conveyed by Smith's work, there
is a touch of cheer in their physical
appeal. They are really, very nice
paintings. This is art that keeps on
giving." µ
|
Purgatory
By Emily
Bumgarner
A class project by a twenty-two
year old sociology major who contacted
the artist with a copyright use request.
Impresssed with this student, the text
now appears here.
When people walk
through an art gallery they usually pick
out a piece that for one reason or
another catches their eye. Very few
people stop to figure out what each
detail means. The buyer would be
surprised if they took it for more than
face value. An artist expresses a point
of view and feelings in everything they
make. It can be a dream to see the ocean
or a political statement. The point of
the picture may be as simple as the title
or it could be found in the last brush
stroke. The artist want's to communicate
with a large number of people at once and
there is no better way than mass media.
By just figuring out the meaning of the
title, one has started the climb into the
artist's mind.
Purgatory
is the postponement of heaven while
suffering is inflicted to forgive sins.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia
acknowledges: "In the final
analysis, the catholic doctrine on
purgatory is based on tradition, not
sacred scripture." This temporal
punishment is for those who died in grace
but are not free yet from all
imperfection. To those of us who are not
without sin, the traditional belief of
purgatory may act as a comfort when
looking at the alternative, hell. In
1991, WL Smith created to challenge the
definition and creators of
purgatory."Purgatory"
using tangible items to interpret the
doctrine. The artist uses this creation
|
|
Blood catches my eyes, then scratch marks
upon the door. Chills hit my spine as I
feel the pain and suffering in the piece.
The key hole locks the vault and the
occupants within. All humans are
imperfect and only one, Jesus, was free
from sin. With that fact in mind most of
mankind would be in purgatory. What is so
comforting knowing that I will work hard
all of my life to be the best person
possible and still have to suffer? It
doesn't make much sense. Behind that door
the living don't know what happens. By
the looks of the blood from the dripping
key hole it is not pleasant.
Adding a
bit of history, Jesus died as a ransom
sacrifice for all mankind. It is through
him that our sins are forgiven. (With
nails driven into his body, being beat
and tortured to his death, so that
mankind would be free from such
punishment) The mere suggestion of
purgatory degrades his sacrifice. The
ludicrousness of this idea helps support
of purgatory as Mr. Smith's definition.
|
|
The traditional teaching is also out
dated and a very old way of thinking.
Knowing that Mr. Smith is some what of an
activist the thought of a bunch of old
men sitting around thinking up another
way to control people is probably what
moved him in choosing his materials. He
chose an antique key plate. One reason
for that choice might have been that that
was what was available at the time. A
more logical reason would be to express a
point. Why should people be frightened
into a life that some old stuffed shirt
dictated to people so long ago that the
idea is more antique than the key plate?
The answer; we should dictate our lives,
not doctrines invented in the
imaginations of control freaks.
Another
outstanding use of materials is
demonstrated with the use of plaster,
acrylic, and tempera on canvas. Mr. Smith
combined these items to make the cement
box. Cement last for decades and if an
animal were to die in it, its imprint
could be preserved, as happened with the
idea of purgatory. No where in the Bible
is purgatory mentioned, a fact the
Catholic Church recognizes. But it is
continued to be taught because of
tradition, also known as a fossil being
stuck in cement. Once cement is set it
can't be changed, maybe that is what is
meant by being stuck in your ways,
purgatory is a perfect example.
The
scratches on the door mean more than the
obvious pain of souls in purgatory. They
are the wanting out of tradition. The
artist himself is an activist, he along
with others continue fighting old ways to
breed new ways. Society and tradition
change with every voice just as the
scratches have warped the door and
changed it. Eventually purgatory won't be
taught. Not because men have lost. µ |
|
|
