Old friends, and two of compact gallery's founders, Jeff Jamieson and Todd Young enlivened San Luis Obispo earlier this month with the opening of the gallery's latest exhibition. Jamieson presented twelve recent sculptures, which remain on view through October 8. Todd Young read nine recent poems to the crowd that attended the opening party on September 2. The opening/reading also sounded the closing knell for the contemporary arts gallery that was established in 2003. The current show will be its last.
What a superb knell! Young recited his poems hourly in groups of three. Each of the three readings was announced by the ringing of a small brass bell. Among the nine poems were a note for wcw, The tenuous connection in memory, and Early Friday. Young, whose poems have been published most recently in The Fossil Record and in a limited edition Manneken Press volume, recited his observant and precise poems with little inflection, perfect measure, and a familiar nasal authority. He did so surrounded by Jamieson's spare, monochrome sculptures. It was an intoxicating combination. Video recordings of the evening's readings and installation photographs of Jamieson's work may be viewed on the compact website: compactgallery.com.
Jamieson's small painted wooden sculptures, mounted at varying heights and intervals on the gallery's four walls, economically modulate the gallery space. All of the pieces command more of the room than would be expected given their diminutive size and modest detail. Imperceptibly attached to the wall, they appear to perch; they seem light enough either to float or quickly fly away.
As you enter the gallery, four of Jamieson's sculptures are installed on the west wall to form a wide "V." The smallest piece, a three-inch long dark brown infinity (figure-eight) symbol, hovers seven feet above the floor. You look up at it. Next comes a bright red elongated version of the same form installed at waist level. Ascending to the right of it, two tilted pear-like shapes hike up the wall. One, at eye level, is cadmium yellow; the other, placed just above head high, is pale blue-green. These toy-like pear shapes are the largest volumes in the gallery. Each measures approximately seven inches long, four to five inches wide, and about two inches thick.
All of Jamieson's sculptures are three sided: two nearly flat opposing planes joined by a curved one determining a simple and iconic shape. Jamieson shows four types: a two-tier snowman, an infinity symbol, a pear, and a phallus. Jamieson, however, avoids confirming these visual references by giving all of the works the same title, Good Witch/Bad Witch, with the addition of an identifying color and number to indicate the location of each piece within the installation.
The north wall of the gallery features three snowmen aligned just below eye level, fairly close to each other, and to the right of center. These pieces are roughly the same size and shape and form a sequence that repeats three of the colors from the west wall: cadmium yellow, pale blue-green, and dark red-brown.
Spread out across the east wall from left to right are two alternating pairs of Jamieson shapes, evenly spaced at eye level: a pale blue-green infinity symbol, a bright red snowman, a cadmium yellow infinity symbol, and a pale blue-green snowman. The south wall features a single sculpture--an assiduous French blue phallus--installed at chest height.
All of these sculptures incorporate semi-cylindrical forms and attach to the wall tangent to their cylindrical curves. The infinity sculptures are installed horizontally and touch the wall at both ends. The other three sculptural shapes connect to the wall from a single point on their largest curve. The snowmen stand vertical and erect; the vertical pears and the horizontal phallus tilt away from the wall. The pears lean out about 35 degrees; the phallus about 20.
Jamieson's pieces are picture-objects. They fluctuate between being a thing and being a two-dimensional rendering of another thing. Intriguingly each directs its pictorial face not towards but rather away from the viewer. The snowmen and the pears draw the viewer parallel to the wall to read their sign-like shapes. The phallus and the infinity symbol compel the viewer to rise above or to sink below their flat planes to enjoy their evocative swellings.
A Jamieson sculpture presents two very different aspects. Viewed from straight on one sees a richly colored rectangle. Lined up to the gallery's verticals or horizontals, a grouping of the sculptures creates a constructivist composition reminiscent of a de Stijl interior. Precisely placed notes of rich color play the white room and the intervals between the pieces become an important counterpoint to Jamieson's objects.
Viewed obliquely a Jamieson sculpture reveals its seductive curvilinear volume and charming allusion. Snowmen and tilting fruit signs cannot help but cheer. Who does not love infinity? Childhood imagery is one of the progenitors of these delightful works (Jamieson has cited anime artist H. Miyazaki as an influence.) However a return to the middle of the room makes the meaning dissipate; one's attention returns to color, interval and space.
With this elegant body of work Jamieson has carefully whittled down his means to very little: four references to familiar shapes, five well-considered colors, and careful placement. Jamieson has fashioned and presented a lively band of potent archetypes.
--Rupert Deese, 2005
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