Banal and boring have never been so intriguing.
The graduate theses of UB art students Kevin Charles Kline and Joel Brenden, on display until May 24 at the CEPA Gallery, capture different, often unsettling images of matter that might have initially seemed mundane.
The exhibit "Scripted Image: (Re) Visions of Authority" is at first jarring. Early 1900s photographs are put together in a non-coherent fashion, showcasing children with four legs, a husband and wife connected, and a drainage pipe in place of their faces.
As the exhibit continues, viewers pass dissected books, incorrectly assembled maps, and several models of outdated medical guide information, each with its own psychiatric evaluation underneath.
Meanwhile, a film in the background plays on a loop, screening edited footage from various instructional Coronet films of the 1940s and '50s.
Mad Max, the 1979 Mel Gibson thriller, might not immediately come to mind, but Kline uses the post-apocalyptic world the film is set in as an example of an alien perspective, further illustrating the concept.
"I consider the exhibit to be looking back at 20th century media in the way an alien culture would. [The exhibit is] like assembling a fictitious book that I found from that period," Kline said. "I'm playing a media archaeologist, making sense of media artifacts."
"Scripted Image" takes various elements of media from the early 1900s and takes away the proper context, as though they were reassembling history incorrectly.
Kline simplifies the idea down to "disturbing the narrative." The results range from the grotesque (such as a globe wired as though going through shock therapy) to the amusing.
The end effect is not only to consider the origins of these materials but also to consider where their original context comes from. For example, Kline mentions the connection between the Coronet Films, Leni Riefenstahl and Nazi propaganda, and Hollywood narrative. The previously mentioned alien culture might have viewed them in one way, but how to view them ourselves is an equally valid question.
"It uses humor to consider something serious, to look at the American style of visual control and consider it with naivety," Kline said.
If "Scripted Image" is initially harsh and comes together slowly, "Calls & Orders" is barely noticeable. In fact, when walking into the building, you might pass it by without realizing it.
"Calls & Orders" is an exhibit that is, in essence, an office. Walking in, viewers are encouraged to take a free pencil and picture of the office. A file cabinet has labels for "Accounts," "Customer Service," "Projects" and "Themes."
Classical music quietly plays in the background. A desk with a typewriter stands in front of a mail cabinet.
Viewers that go in knowing it is an exhibit may find themselves looking for the "punch line," so to speak, or an element that doesn't quite fit or an aspect that gives a clear message to the work. "Calls & Orders" notably leaves this element out.
As part of his larger "Enthusiast" series of artistic works, Brenden seems to enjoy his lack of a clear message.
"With 'Enthusiast' I was trying to build up a major project with no central theme," Brenden said. "In 'Calls & Orders' the office is an ideal version of 'an office,' an ideal version of how an office should be, not necessarily [how it] is."
If viewers leave asking what exactly Brenden wants them to think about the exhibit, then he has done his job.
"I try to make work that is seductive and appealing, but that encourages incredulity," Brenden said. "It's so obvious that you have to wonder what you're being told."
The young artist will personally be a part of his exhibit, as he will be holding "office hours."
When asked if the project was just a way to get a nice office to work in, Brenden laughed off the suggestion before admitting that it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Both Brenden and Kline intend to take what is perceived to be normal and disrupt the pattern. Whether it's the altered conceptions of history and normality or the free pencil and Coronet film screening, these are interesting ideas, impossible to ignore.
Located at 617 Main St., the CEPA Gallery exhibits are free to the general public.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
