Alternative
Materials Panel Discussion with James
Hubbell and Debby and Larry Kline (SD Art Prize recipients 2013) and
selected NCVI artists Timothy Earl Neill, James Enos and Brennan
Hubbell with moderator Jim Gabriel: ARCHITECTS Hanna Gabriel
Wells
at the Sparks Gallery
at the Sparks Gallery
I want to start this report
with the announcement that we are delighted to announce the SD Art Prize 2013
emerging artist recipients. The established artist James Hubbell
has chosen Brennan
Hubbell and Debby and Larry
Kline have chosen James Enos, These four artists will show together
at the SD Art Prize 2013 at Art San Diego
Contemporary Art Fair : November
7 - 10, 2013 and again SD Art Prize
at Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in
April of 2014. It will be very exciting to see what these two pairs of artist
present in the near future.
The panel was very
stimulating and although not controversial there were some wonderful quotes and
points made about the process of creation. Questions included the criteria for
choice of materials, the most challenging material, the symbolic role of the
materials, the longevity of the materials, and thoughts on renewable materials
and new technology. The panel was ably facilitated by Jim Gabriel. Great thanks
go to Sonya Spark and Sparks Gallery for hosting this panel. I am paraphrasing
and summarizing here, so please do not take this as an exact reporting of what
the participants said. Many, many examples are excluded so that you get the
gist of the conversation.
James Hubbell: Art and Religion is all about what we do, not what we see. How we use
materials to go inside ourselves to reveal content is important. Materials take
you someplace whether it is to the past, present or future and have an
influence on your journey. For example, we come from clay and return to clay,
so clay’s very nature has an influence on the work. If you make a maquette from
wood, the final piece in what ever medium, will be influenced by that wood. In the west we think, “In the beginning, there
is the word”. In Asia, they think, ‘In the beginning,
there is the brush”. We have to imagine the world in order to make it. There is
a rhythm and a pattern to life and it is not necessary linear. Times changes
everything and what was once old fashion become essential again. "We can begin to see a manifestation of many future-primitive technologies
asserting themselves across industry i.e. carbon fiber loom weaving for airplane
wings" (James
Enos). Hubbell uses the easiest material to get and the most affordable. Those
local materials are an integral part of our language. We should learn from our
land and our wind. When we use new technology, what are we giving up? All art
is a prayer. It might be a prayer that is a message or a cry for change. It
does not need to last to fulfill that destiny.
Brennan Hubbell: Materials can be thought of in a more abstract way for example, art as
a gathering space which is in constant flux. The space needs to accommodate its
function and have upkeep and re-arrangement to suit its changing purpose. There
is a village which makes a spiritual action of repainting the designs on their
adobe homes everyday with rice paint. Used materials which are recycled already
have an innate history and this adds meaning to the new work. Not only should
we use local materials but we should encourage all to buy local.
Debby and Larry Kline: Although most of our ideas come first, and we quest
to find the right materials to manifest them, some of the work is influenced by
the materials at an early stage. We love to learn about new materials and the
restraints and advantages that they put on us is a wonderful part of the
process. With new technology, the challenge is to use it in ways it was not
intended to be used and to incorporate new technologies to create works that
have lasting impact and meaning beyond the novelty of those technologies.
James Enos:
"We are amidst a post-pop re-pop generation. Many of us have been socialized by
transitional global capitalism foremost via Internet organized modes of
representation. This certainly affects our understanding of materials, and
affects our conceptions of what is “local”. This is technocratic knowledge
distribution at work. I agree with Jim Hubbell that our conversation needs to be
about space. In considering the ways in which space is organized, we can come to
understand the place and meaning of materials whether through our experience of
formal ordering principals like sun, wind and light, or by way of our
relationship to political power, economy, and own means. We are here to explore,
and to participate in the construction of our environment. Creative’s often do
use fiction to re-direct fact or vice versa, and this has immense transformative
agency. However, often we fight amongst themselves for survival, and fail to
organize collective approaches for social change."
Timothy Earl Neill: . From
Marshall McLuhan, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” The glow of the screen is now a fetish. We see it everywhere. It
allows us to be two places at once and travel faster than a speeding bullet.
Can new technology make objects that last forever?
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| Jim Gabriel, Brennan Hubbell, Timothy Earl Neil |
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| Larry and Debby Kline |
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| James Enos, James Hubbell |
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| Rapt Audience |
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| Observer, Irene de Watteville, Rosemary KimBal, Raymond Elstad |
