“UNTITLED”
From Oct. 7 to 11, Zavitz Gallery showcased the work of two artists from the University of Guelph’s MFA program. Jen Aitken and Matt Schust collaborated in an exhibition called “UNTITLED.” It presented the audience with a compelling show of found objects, all from the University of Guelph campus, elevated to the status of art within the space.
Jen Aitken, a BFA graduate from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, is a second year MFA student at the University of Guelph. Her practice involves sculpture and drawing with a developed formal vocabulary, used together with certain restrictions such as the use of only 90 and 45-degree angles and circular radius to create geometric forms of various volumes. Matt Schust, BA graduate with honours in Fine Art from the University of Waterloo, is also a second year MFA student at the University. His practice mainly focuses on painting, but he also has a background in sculpture. His work is concerned with the history of abstraction, particularly minimalist and post-minimalist practice.
Every piece in the exhibition was a complete collaboration between the two artists. “The general concept for the show was to select a single day to search and install material from the immediate campus environment into Zavitz gallery to create a collaborative show,” said Schust. “It turned into a process that created a show of found objects that were elevated and treated as sculptures without actually sculpting anything.”
Upon entering the gallery, the first that piece that was presented to the audience was three connected pipes (found on campus) that spanned across the room from wall to wall. The artists wanted to make a piece that spanned the whole length of the room without allowing it to come into contact with the floor. This was a difficult task, given the natural weight and flexibility of the pipes. This made it a fragile piece due to its dimensions, and was only held from two connections to the walls. This piece provided the viewers with a notion and reference to the infrastructure that exist within buildings because the piece was installed in a manner that gave the impression that they are naturally connected and continued through the walls.
The right wall of the gallery held a piece of a combination of elements that gave the work an essence of great mass. A concrete bike rack was locked to the wall with a combo lock. The piece had precariousness as well as a comedic component, as some would articulate that it would be inappropriate to lock a bike rack to a wall with a dainty bike lock. Even though the piece had a comedic organization of elements, it was elevated to a height on the wall that allow for it to be read as sculpture with density.
On the right side of the back wall, was a window that allowed for people to look inside the gallery. The two artists incorporated a piece to be viewed through glass on one side, with the other side presented directly to the audience inside the gallery. This work was a long, thin piece of metal from the ceiling of McNaughton building that had fallen off. The color and finish, on the side presented inside the gallery, was matte and bright, similar to colours used in the 1970’s. Through the glass from outside the gallery, the audience was able to see the beautiful dust and fingerprints on the back of ceiling piece.
On the left side of the back wall was a piece that served, in a small manner, as a punch-line to the show. It was a simple gesture where the artists connected the top of a water bottle on the wall with water still in it. It was the most evident found object within the show and perhaps was the most difficult to elevate to the status of art. The water bottle gave the notion that it was meant to be an absurd, subtle gesture in a show that might otherwise been seen as sparse and serious.
The most visually dominant piece was on the left wall of the galley. Aitken and Schust used a found/reclaimed-painting from the billboard that lies between Zavitz and the Bullring. The Artists removed one-sixth of it and showed the backside as a painting in the exhibition. “I’ve always admired the material beauty of all that paint and have been wanting to do something with it since coming to Guelph,” said Schust. This show presented the perfect opportunity for the two artists to discover much of the billboard’s history, painted on in layers. The manipulation within this piece was the removal of certain areas of the billboard to allow for the audience to view the various colours that existed within its layers and provide an overall aesthetic beauty. After the exhibition ended, the portion of the billboard was returned to its original location.
Essentially, the show “UNTITLED” was successful in elevating quotidian materials to the status of art. The general theme that came through was that of precariousness, as each work evoked a sense that it might not quite work, that it might fail or collapse.