Sunday, January 17, 2010
Arts & Extras: Couple concocts bizarre art scenes
Courtesy of Washington & Lee University
The "Louviere + Vanessa" exhibit will be on display at Washington and Lee University through Feb. 11.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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Eerie creatures in uneasy spaces -- that's what the photographic prints of Jeff Louviere and Vanessa Brown seem to capture.
An exhibit by the husband-and-wife team, who collaborate under the name "Louviere + Vanessa," opened this month in the Staniar Gallery at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.
Gallery director Clover Archer Lyle said she approached the New Orleans couple at the suggestion of photography professor Krista Bowden. The whimsical and surreal images in "Louviere + Vanessa: Persistence of Vision" will stay on display through Feb. 11.
Combining Brown's photography expertise with Louviere's print making and painting experience, the couple use mixed media to create bizarre scenes that recall dreams or illustrations from dark fantasy tales. "They kind of hint at a narrative but don't give you all the answers," Lyle said.
The artists add texture to their photographs by scratching, burying or otherwise distressing the negatives, and coloring with substances such as gold, wax or even their own blood. About that last item, Louviere reassured in an e-mail, "it's nothing spooky or voodoo-ish in any way."
The use of blood in the artwork came about from Louviere's knowledge of mixing glazes and Brown's studies in American Indian cultures, Louviere wrote, "specifically imitative magic, where the Indians donned feathers, horns and skins of animals in order to get closer to them and hopefully absorb the animal's attributes to make up for their human shortcomings."
In practical terms, it makes a striking color, "and it's a cool way to test for authenticity once we're dead," he wrote.
The pair met in Savannah, Ga., and began collaborating when they moved to New Orleans in 1998. "We have a knack for trying very strange things and then perfecting the technique. We have lots of mistakes sitting in our studio!"
The two also work in film. Using stop-motion animation, they created what Louviere says is the first film ever shot on a Holga, a tiny low-tech box camera manufactured in China. "We've since moved into Super 8 and digital as well."
The university will screen several Louviere + Vanessa films in a mini-film festival Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall, Lyle said. The artists will give a lecture Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Washington Hall.
Louviere wrote that he hopes their artwork gives some sense of the immediacy and urgency of the human condition. "The theme is about (not) fitting into your environment. We're calling to mind Native American practices of imitative magic, populated with lone creatures that are a bit uneasy in their own skin. They are, in a way, us as we've evolved as artists and as a couple and also everyone at some point or another."
For more information on the exhibit, call 458-8861.
Louviere + Vanessa keep an extremely lively Web site at louviereandvanessa.com.
Nominations sought for Perry F. Kendig Awards
The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge is calling for nominations for the 2010 Perry F. Kendig Awards for Outstanding Support of the Arts.
The awards honor individual artisans in literary, visual art and performance arts categories. Awards will also be presented to arts supporters in the categories of Arts Education Program, Business, Arts and Cultural Organization, Individual Patron of the Arts, and Young Professional.
The awards are chosen by a volunteer committee based on nominations from the general public. They'll be given out at Roanoke College on June 9 in a ceremony that will mark the honor's 25th anniversary.
The council will accept nominations through March 1. Nomination forms can be obtained at the arts council's office on the second floor of Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke or at www.theartscouncil.org.
Call for auditions: 'Greater Tuna'
Director Karen Hopkins of Bedford's Little Town Players will open auditions for the comedy "Greater Tuna" on 7 p.m. Jan. 24-25 in the Elks National Home Theatre in Bedford.
Written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard, the 1981 comedy takes place in fictional Tuna, Texas, described as the "third-smallest" town in the Lone Star State. The cast consists of only two men, who play all the characters, regardless of age or gender. The Little Town Players production opens March 19.
For more information, visit littletownplayers.com or contact the director at kchop64@yahoo.com.
Student watercolors at Virginia Western
Virginia Western Community College has opened a show of watercolor paintings by students called "248 Exposed: Watercolors by Art 248 Students from Fall Semester 2009." The exhibit will be on display through Feb. 12 in the art gallery in the Humanities Building. For more information, call 857-6070.
On the Arts blog
On my Arts & Extras blog this past week I posted the complete schedule of the upcoming Sweet Briar College Fringe Festival and asked folks to discuss their favorite movies of 2009. Come join the discussion at blogs.roanoke.com/arts
