PRESS RELEASE:
REMEMBERING PLEASURE
Video, Drawing, Sculpture by Alan B. Callander, Ian Jehle, Karen Joan Topping
Curated by George Panagi
Curated Exhibition at Art-O-Matic 2002
401 M Street SW, Waterside Mall
October 31, 2002 - November 30, 2002
For more information Contact George Panagi at kiosk@visionload.com
Digital images of the art are available upon request.
“Remembering Pleasure,” curated by George Panagi, gathers together the work of three Washington area artists, Alan Callander, Ian Jehle and Karen Joan Topping. Presented as part of Art-o-Matic 2002, “Remembering Pleasure” looks at the relationship between pleasure and memory, or more specifically, the differences between the experience of pleasure and our memories of pleasure.
Alan Callander presents his video FR01 as part of an ongoing experiment in the narrative possibilities of abstract video and sound. Technology and desire, landscape and experience, violence and memory are a few of the relationships layered into this visually arresting work. Alan Callander has shown work at film festivals in Washington DC, Toronto, Sydney, and Aukland, New Zealand.
Ian Jehle conceived the idea for his portrait of the art critic and writer Dave Hickey after hearing him speak in New York City in 2000. Hickey is known as a long-time advocate for “the art of pleasure.” While poking fun at Hickey and his idea of “if it feels good, it is good,” Ian’s portrait also manages to examine ideas of pleasure - physical vs. intellectual, visceral vs. remembered. Arecent graduate of the Visual Arts Program at Columbia University, Ian lives and works in Washington, DC.
Karen Joan Topping’s piece “gone like my innocence” included in this show is a deviation from her past painting. This work continues her exploration of perception and memory through symbols, materials and implied narrative. Simple juxtapositions challenge personal experiences of perception, memory, reverie, fantasy and fear. Other works by Karen have been seen in 2002 in conjunction with Ladyfest D C ’s District of Ladies and Velvet Hammer Auction. Karen lives and works in Washington DC.
George Panagi was asked to curate this show based on the themes of pleasure and memory which appeared in the works of the three artists. Relying on his experience as a speaker on the subject of modern art and his post graduate studies of contemporary art in London, Mr. Panagi has created an essay and installation which creates a theoretical dialog among the pieces.
“Remembering Pleasure” is presented as part of Art-o-Matic 2002 and is located in room Cheverly on the second floor of the Waterside Mall, 401 M St. SW.
The Press Preview for Art-O-Matic is on Wednesday, October 30, 2002. (Visit www.artomatic.org for more information.) The show opens to the public with a Halloween Costume Ball on T h u r s d a y, October 31, 2002. Art-O-Matic is open noon till midnight, Wednesday through Sunday until November 30, 2002. (Closed Thanksgiving.)
Art-O-Matic is accessible by Metro at the Waterfront/SEU Metro Station on the Green Line. Parking is also available on site.
About Me
- Karen Joan Topping
- is an emerging artist working in multi-media living in Washington DC. With an MFA from The University Of The Arts and a BFA from American University, she has shown her work in many regional group exhibitions. For Karen Joan Topping, things such as toys and candy are the tools and materials for the making of art. She creates installations, sculptures and video projections engaging in a spirit of play and exploration that are inquiries into attention, emotion and judgment as much as they are investigations of aesthetic practices. By using seductive and nostalgic objects from childhood, she examines how fantasy, memory, hope and anxiety can be explored in space and time as well as symbol and form.