[ peripheral / interface ]
May 2009
May 2009
My fascination of documenting and exploring anime and manga visuals continues to lead me in a direction which reveals its place in our culture. This visual vocabulary, once confined by national and geographic boundaries, now permeates our Western societies. It has become part of the sub-cultural fabric of our world and continues to assert its permanence.
The wave of media that has ushered in a new Japanization of the West still serves as the foundation for my work, but now I must let in all the other elements attached to this phenomenon that have long tried to break through. The cultural trends of consumerism as well as national and international politics do not exist without effect on the media which fuels my endeavors.
While my interests are varied and many, they are now becoming one with the art I create. This is the time when I must gather video games, anime, technology, consumerism, philosophy, religion, multiculturalism, and politics together. It may be too much, but my generation lives in a world where all these exert their influence. Sometimes it really is too much.
The wave of media that has ushered in a new Japanization of the West still serves as the foundation for my work, but now I must let in all the other elements attached to this phenomenon that have long tried to break through. The cultural trends of consumerism as well as national and international politics do not exist without effect on the media which fuels my endeavors.
While my interests are varied and many, they are now becoming one with the art I create. This is the time when I must gather video games, anime, technology, consumerism, philosophy, religion, multiculturalism, and politics together. It may be too much, but my generation lives in a world where all these exert their influence. Sometimes it really is too much.
Economics
Acrylic on wood with keyboard.
Painting: 60 in. x 26 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Acrylic on wood with keyboard.
Painting: 60 in. x 26 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Severed
Acrylic on wood with wires.
Painting: 42 in. x 42 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Acrylic on wood with wires.
Painting: 42 in. x 42 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Acrylic on wood with two guitar controllers.
Painting: 48 in. x 36 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Revolution
Acrylic on wood with dance pad.
Painting: 46 in. x 40 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Acrylic on wood with dance pad.
Painting: 46 in. x 40 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Revolution (detail)
Noise
Acrylic on wood with headphones and media player.
Painting: 48 in. x 36 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
Acrylic on wood with headphones and media player.
Painting: 48 in. x 36 in.
Installation dimensions variable.
STARNEWS | Thursday, May 28, 2009 [link]
Reinterpreting culture
Polish-American artist's 'interface' opens at Art Box
BY JOEL FINSEL
StarNews Correspondent
How does what we are connected to define our lives? I left Michal Wisniowski's multimedia exhibition"[peripheral/interface]" at the Soapbox's recently revamped second floor gallery space pondering this question. The public opening for the exhibit is Friday.
Take "Severed," a glowing acrylic portrait of the Dalai Lama on canvas. Adorned in the traditional gold and crimson robes of a Buddhist monk, the Nobel Peace Prize winner's warm visage floats before a map of Tibet, from which he was forced into exile after the Chinese invasion of 1950. Radiating out of the bottom of the [wood], a sprawl of severed black, red, blue and gray computer plugs and cables hang limply to the ground.
Another work, "Economics," depicts a large monetary note modeled after American currency, except all major identification aspects have been replaced with LOL (computer chat shorthand for "laugh out loud"): "The United States of LOL," "Federal Reserve LOL." "One LOL."
Further disconnect emanates from Wisniowski's use of the portrait space, typically reserved for a president, where an unfamiliar anime character roars a tongue-hanging, tight-lidded laugh above a keyboard mounted below. It's missing all of its keys except the L and O.
Wisniowski's new work is a sure-footed step forward. Last year's solo Caffe Phoenix show (of which I was curator) defined his interest in the anime genre. Wisniowski is also the founder of Aniwave, a local anime festival.
Polish-born, Wisniowski and his mother fled the communist state, only to be denied asylum in refugee camps. Returning home, they met a benevolent train conductor who helped them escape into West Germany, and they eventually made their way to [...] the United States. These new works expand his multicultural roots with elements of popular culture in the form of video games, consumerism and politics.
"Revolution" consists of a video game dance-pad (a la "Dance Dance Revolution") mounted on the wall. A cord connects it to a floor-mounted [panel] wherein the red and blue political boundaries of the United States have been painted above a background of colored arrows prompting a player to engage the console. Under the auspices of slogans "Let's Dance" and "Show Me Your Moves," golden stars of the Chinese flag rise up through the red to reflect our record deficit, much of it Chinese-owned.
Another video game-inspired work, "Hero," depicts a coalition soldier scanning a nearly deserted street scene above the scope of his rifle. Shops have closed, street lights illuminate power lines in the distance below an ominous sky as a lone pedestrian makes his way below an Iraqi flag. Plugged into the canvas are a pair of guitar-shaped video game controllers inviting the viewer to rip through a simulated solo.
I felt compelled to play the game, but because it was impossible, my own impulse to react quickly and without much thought halted when the game itself became art and I remained simply human.
Reinterpreting culture
Polish-American artist's 'interface' opens at Art Box
BY JOEL FINSEL
StarNews Correspondent
How does what we are connected to define our lives? I left Michal Wisniowski's multimedia exhibition"[peripheral/interface]" at the Soapbox's recently revamped second floor gallery space pondering this question. The public opening for the exhibit is Friday.
Take "Severed," a glowing acrylic portrait of the Dalai Lama on canvas. Adorned in the traditional gold and crimson robes of a Buddhist monk, the Nobel Peace Prize winner's warm visage floats before a map of Tibet, from which he was forced into exile after the Chinese invasion of 1950. Radiating out of the bottom of the [wood], a sprawl of severed black, red, blue and gray computer plugs and cables hang limply to the ground.
Another work, "Economics," depicts a large monetary note modeled after American currency, except all major identification aspects have been replaced with LOL (computer chat shorthand for "laugh out loud"): "The United States of LOL," "Federal Reserve LOL." "One LOL."
Further disconnect emanates from Wisniowski's use of the portrait space, typically reserved for a president, where an unfamiliar anime character roars a tongue-hanging, tight-lidded laugh above a keyboard mounted below. It's missing all of its keys except the L and O.
Wisniowski's new work is a sure-footed step forward. Last year's solo Caffe Phoenix show (of which I was curator) defined his interest in the anime genre. Wisniowski is also the founder of Aniwave, a local anime festival.
Polish-born, Wisniowski and his mother fled the communist state, only to be denied asylum in refugee camps. Returning home, they met a benevolent train conductor who helped them escape into West Germany, and they eventually made their way to [...] the United States. These new works expand his multicultural roots with elements of popular culture in the form of video games, consumerism and politics.
"Revolution" consists of a video game dance-pad (a la "Dance Dance Revolution") mounted on the wall. A cord connects it to a floor-mounted [panel] wherein the red and blue political boundaries of the United States have been painted above a background of colored arrows prompting a player to engage the console. Under the auspices of slogans "Let's Dance" and "Show Me Your Moves," golden stars of the Chinese flag rise up through the red to reflect our record deficit, much of it Chinese-owned.
Another video game-inspired work, "Hero," depicts a coalition soldier scanning a nearly deserted street scene above the scope of his rifle. Shops have closed, street lights illuminate power lines in the distance below an ominous sky as a lone pedestrian makes his way below an Iraqi flag. Plugged into the canvas are a pair of guitar-shaped video game controllers inviting the viewer to rip through a simulated solo.
I felt compelled to play the game, but because it was impossible, my own impulse to react quickly and without much thought halted when the game itself became art and I remained simply human.
