"Autosemblematic" Exhibition

Local Project

poster for "Autosemblematic" Exhibition

This event has ended.

The exhibition, autosemblematic, examines the current state of visual language by exploring the way nine contemporary artists deconstruct its various structural units using images and references from mainstream popular culture. Visual language, and subsequent visual vocabulary, can be defined as a system of communication using visual elements or structural units that include line, shape, color, form, motion, texture, pattern, direction, orientation, scale, angle, space and proportion. Typically, the elements in an image represent concepts in a spatial context, rather than the linear form used for words. Within this framework, the title autosemblematic, a cross between the words automatic, semblance and emblem, acts as a fictional tool, or set of criterion, in which the artworks are deconstructed in the context of this exhibition. Automatic refers to an instinctive or unconscious response that we have to visual stimuli. Semblance refers to each artists’ use of a defined visual vocabulary to create the appearance or impression of that vocabulary within the artwork that is something other than what it is creating the impression of. Emblem refers to the idea that each of the artworks on view act as symbols of a larger whole. autosemblematic is curated by Jennifer Junkermeier and includes work by Marcy Brafman, Sally Curcio, Gabert Farrar, Michael Greathouse, Osman Khan, Scott Kiernan, Margaret Lanzetta, Renzo Ortega and Alexander Reyna.

The most common forms of visual language manifest themselves for purposes of advertising, communication, development, education, entertainment and art. Visual language can be found on street corners, construction sites, magazines, clothing, books, bags, museums, movie screens, any area of the globe that is accessed visually. Everyone in the world interacts with visual language on a daily basis whether on television, billboards, or traffic lights. Visual language is a key component in how we comprehend and relate to the world around us. Because of the frequent and consistent use of visual language as a common form of communication, it continues to spread with a broad global range. With the onset of globalization through increased 24 hour access to the internet and the development of globally reliant import/export economies a universal visual language inevitably evolves. Amidst the evolution, history remains a discerning factor in how the vocabulary or structural units of visual language is defined.

The artwork included in autosemblematic appropriates the structural units of visual language found on the street, the internet, any number of vast sources emitting popular culture through displaced contexts and acknowledgement of a structural unit’s historical reference. In doing so, each of the artists de-constructs visual language by evoking a myriad of questions in how visual language is defined. At a time when recession has slowed down commerce, accepting that global open market and free trade operations being a factor behind the evolution and spread of a more concrete universal visual language, today becomes an optimal time to glance around and re-assess what we see.

Media

Schedule

from November 13, 2010 to November 27, 2010
Nov.21 Sun, 2-4pm: Artists Talk

Opening Reception on 2010-11-13 from 19:00 to 21:00

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