Utah Museum of Contemporary Art Opening

On March 22nd, I attended several opening receptions! The UMoCA had several shows open that night, including "Shady Acres' and "Sit Comfortably in a Darkened Room and Think of Nothing". I was very excited for the latter of these two, because it consisted entirely of the work of Heidi Jensen, who shares a name with one of my close friends in the art department. I was interested to see how far the similarities would go. Both do work about gender, which was a definitely current in Jensen's work in 'Sit Comfortably".

Jensen's drawings and paintings consisted mainly of hyper-feminine objects that were drawn together, creating new and incredibly foreign objects. The most common objects re-purposed in this way were ornamental fans, ruffled cuffs, and feather dusters - traditionally female items. The information card given out at the reception stated, "When drawn, [the feminine objects] regain the vitality and intensity of color they may have had when first created and used. The drawings pay respect to these things that women made and carried, objects that defined and displayed ideas of femininity. Jensen's reaction to them, however, is one of estrangement". While the drawings definitely had some bright colors - some consisting of neon reds and greens, the atmosphere of the artwork in my opinion was more gloomy and dark, which is supported by the title of exhibition. I personally didn't feel like the objects 'regained the vitality' they once had. Instead, I thought the artwork removed these items - the lack of colors and detailed marks pushing the pieces more into a historical, dusty cabinet of mystery. While the objects were combined, the historical aspect of the individual objects was hard to overlook. I don't doubt that this was Jensen's intention, and I personally agree with the statement that the objects bring a sense of estrangement. Overall, it was an interesting look at the aspects of gender that are often pushed into history, and how the objects interact in a contemporary sphere.

 The Larger of the exhibitions up, however, was "Shady Acres", a multi-artist look at suburban spaces. I won't go into detail on these artworks, as there were several differing viewpoints, mediums, and artists. The artwork ranged from scrap metal sculptures composed of advertisements and signs, to photographs of things seen on streets, to a large cinder block 'house' with no possible entrance or exit. I thought this idea was interesting to have in Utah - where there are many suburban spaces and people have so many differing opinions on them.
 
 The image above is of me in front of Erick Michaud's piece. I feel like it best captured how I feel about the suburbs.