Slippery
Juliette Cook

Slipperiness presents itself ironically as a cohesion between the works of these artists. The linking quality is in itself "slippery" or equivocal, in the sense that the work describes a flux, a state between states, a refusal or rejection of contours.

In his book, Working Space , Frank Stella suggests "tubular displacement and disposition of fluid pigment, as if it were coming out of a hose and could hold itself together," as a sort of ecstatic climax of abstraction. In the proposed scenario fluid frees itself from bounds of surface and form to find a new state which is integral only unto itself. A similar transformation is ultimately indicated in the pervasive term, "sublime." Derived from alchemy "subliming" means literally: "causing to pass directly from the solid to the vapor state and condense back to solid form." To sublimate is to purify through this process as well as the intellectual process.

The artists in slippery invoke a flux between solid and liquid states in terms of their methods, materials and motives. They are magicians and conjurers, transforming experience into elements often pointing to the body as a crucible by which these metamorphoses transpire. Smoke and mirrors conceal one origin to yield another.

As a final note: "slippage" refers to a crucial allowance for the viewers to give the work a conceptual as well as a physical space to inhabit rather than cluttering it with obstacles. "SIippage," begs us not to over-explain and as a curator it is this form of slippery to which I concede.

Artists:

Michael Ballou transmogrifies tiny composite animals. They are fantastical amorphous creatures painted and puddly. He sees them as a sideline: work between work that inspires and informs - a lubricant for ideas. Michael Ballou is a founder of 4 Walls in Brooklyn, New York.

Guillermo Creus makes big fat abstract paintings. They are oozy and suggestively figurative. His work is inspired by the Brazilian carnival. What would otherwise be non-objective paintings, take on the "carne" (or "meat") behind carnival. He is a recent graduate of Columbia (the university) and a native of Argentina, the country.

Terri Friedman's work involves giant clear plastic shapes with pumping colored fluids and glitter. They are at once visceral and transcendent. She is installing a large floor mat/fountain adapted for Blohard from an earlier piece, "Slippery When Wet". Friedman lives in Berkeley, CA where she is a visiting artist at UC Berkeley.

Patrick Killoran has stacked a year of soda. It is a giant birthday cake, for all participants, marking time and reminding us of how we consume it. The camaraderie of the drinking experience invites the viewer to participate, contemplate and loiter. Killoran, from the city that never sleeps, reminds us of our need for leisure. In another recent project he installed a legion of hammocks, rocked by the ocean tide.

Michelle Lewis works in sound using several small waterproof speakers filled with viscous liquids and vibrating according to the sound of oscillating crystal. The speakers are placed at throat height where they visually echo the tenuous voice of the viewer. Michelle Lewis was born in Philadelphia and resides in London.

Frank Pietronigro underwent years of NASA red tape to make art in micro gravity. Pietronigro's weightless undertaking was counterbalanced by heavy government regulations. He will install photographs and relics from his flight in a simulated environment. Frank Pietronigro lives and works in San Francisco, California.

Matthew Suib's video projection, "Shadow People" presents us with the gradual dissolve of document and memory. What is familiar becomes obscure through a process of reproduction which defines our recall and in turn destroys it. Matthew Suib is a photographer and video artist working in Philadelphia.

Edgardo Verzi engages in a painterly process, manipulating chemicals and light through color photography. As photographs they defy our ideas of documentation yet in a more residual way they document the photo-chemical and biochemical creative process. Verzi's work finds its origins in the landscapes of Uruguay.

BLOHARD was established by Philadelphia artists to provoke and sustain a dialogue between artists of many cities. Blohard Gallery is a division of Vox Populi.