Contemporary Art Gallery Exhibits Sculpture Installation
Contact: Rene Abadie
8/31/09
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HAMMOND – Southeastern’s Contemporary Art Gallery is featuring a three-piece installation by New York-based artist Charles Goldman through Sept. 25.
The installation -- titled “PBLX” -- features three works including a window display, video soundtrack and a large-scale sculpture made of 128 pallets strategically placed to form a three dimensional X shape.
The Contemporary Art Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. and until 8 p.m. on Wednesdays.
San Francisco born and current Brooklyn resident, Goldman said one of his main artistic interests relates to the objects, means and methods of how goods and materials are transferred around the world in today’s global economy.
“Consequently, a lot of the materials I use are those that are momentarily removed from their constant rotation around the planet, like 55-gallon oil drums, five-gallon buckets, standard blue tarps and in this case, pallets,” Goldman said.
With the help of Southeastern sculpture students, Goldman set up the wooden pallets donated by international and locally branched pallet manufacturer Ifco Systems. Continuing with his interest in the ongoing lifecycle of transported materials, the pallets will be disassembled after the show, returned to Ifco and placed back into the global rotation.
Goldman’s second piece, titled “Skywall,” is a window plug made of standardized wood pieces and blue tarp representing a continuation of the studs that are underneath the gallery walls.
“A lot of my measurements and ideas are based upon the standards within the construction trade,” Goldman said. “When we place the installation in the gallery window, it becomes illuminated by the sky, and we see a shadow of the framing that surrounds us.”
His third piece is a video homage to his childhood playground outside San Francisco. It features images of Mill’s Canyon, a place where Goldman spent a lot of time growing up. The video portrait, which depicts the canyon that separates California neighborhoods, serves as Goldman’s exhibit soundtrack and fills the gallery with “ambient sound.”
Dale Newkirk, director of Southeastern’s Contemporary Art Gallery, said he first saw Goldman’s work at a 2006 show in New York City and was intrigued by the use of space, complexity of the work and the inventiveness in problem solving.
“It’s not very often that I see work that is nonrepresentational that I find takes both languages in a different direction,” Newkirk said. “When I started planning this year’s exhibition schedule, I thought there was an opportunity to let Charles use the entire 7,000 square foot floor gallery space, which I’ve only done a couple of times before.”
Newkirk also said that as curator, he is interested in bringing in artists from outside the local area to work with the Southeastern art students for longer periods of time.
Goldman presented a lecture to Southeastern students and the community Aug. 26 where he told the audience that coming to a learning environment like Southeastern allows him the freedom to experiment with new ideas and interact with students.
Douglas Francis, a junior digital arts major from Lacombe who worked alongside Goldman, said helping the artist exposed him to new artistic mediums and subjects that have given him insight into artistic logic.
“A lot of times as art students we have our own ideas but don’t know quite how to articulate them,” Francis said. “When we get to talk to artists like Charles, who professionally do what we want to do, it helps us see how they arrive at their final product.
“Having different artists come to us and share their ideas is great because they all have something interesting to say. The more we are exposed to new art forms, the more we are able to take away.”
For more information on the exhibit and upcoming artists, contact Dale Newkirk at 985-549-5080 or the Visual Arts Department at 985-549-2193.
Cutline:
New York-based artist Charles Goldman assembles his three dimensional pallet sculpture titled “PBLX” in Southeastern Louisiana University’s Contemporary Art Gallery. Goldman’s three-piece sculpture and video installation focuses on the repetitious lifecycle of economic goods and will be on exhibit through Sept. 25.
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