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Issue 8 2009

ANXIETYIssue 82009

CuratorAndrea Mellard

EditorsJohn MulvanyDebra BrozShea Little

DesignShea Little

Promotion & AdvertisingSean Gaulager

Event CoordinatorChristina Hiett

InternsMark RosenSophie TaylorKatherine Kunze

Advisory BoardReza ShiraziChristina Hiett Brad Carlin

Printed by American Printing and Mailing www.americanprinters.com

This project is funded and supported in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

Cantanker magazine is proudly sponsored by Big Medium, a non-profit visual arts organization based in Austin, Texas. For more information visit: www.bigmedium.org

Submitting to Cantanker

Cantanker magazine accepts proposals from artists and writers for upcoming and future issues.

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Include your Resume/CV and an artist’s statement.

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Texts should not exceed 1000 words and should minimize the use of jargon or art-speak. Writing should be accessible to an intelligent general readership. Feel free to include related visual materials with article drafts or proposals.

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Photography, conceptual projects, text-based work, or work dealing with the formal issues raised by the print medium (pa-per, printing, ink, etc.) are particularly well-suited for Cantanker. We encourage pushing the boundaries of the printed medium and welcome all proposals.

Thank you in advance for your submissions. We truly appreci-ate your contribution and your continuing support for our publi-cation. If you have questions about submitting please email us at editor@cantanker.com.

About the CuratorAndrea Mellard helps coordinate innovative exhibitions and programs as the Assistant Curator at the Austin Museum of Art. She came to Austin seven years ago to earn a M.A. in American Studies from the University of Texas. Before moving to Austin, she worked as a curatorial and research assistant at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Mu-seum of American History. Drawing on an interdisciplinary background she seeks to make connections between visual art and other cultural expressions, inspiration and everyday experience.

The Anxiety exhibition will be on display from August 29 through September 19 at Pump Project Art Complex www.pumpproject.org 702 Shady Lane, Austin, TX, 78702

www.can tanke r. com

El Franco Lee I I

Sandy Carson

Stephanie Martz

Shawn Camp

James Michael Starr

Terri Thomas

Susan Kemner Reed

Darryl Lauster

James Van Arsdale

Yen-Hua Lee

Kevin Curry

Sarah Roberts

Peter Leighton

Mike Whiting

Bunnyphonic

Keri Oldham

Matthew Winters

Kia Neil l

Gretchen Bettes

Anxiety suffuses the current zeitgeist. It is simply

impossible to tune out talk of crisis, meltdown, bail

out, and depression. The subject has a long his-

tory in American art, defining the turn to Abstract

Expressionism in the 1950s. After confronting the

aftermath of World War II and under the threat of

nuclear annihilation, artists expressed their anxiet-

ies by painting incredible abstractions. Now, over

a half century later, what are we all so worried

about? Cantanker magazine’s 8th issue Anxiety

offers perspective.

Several artists consider the consequences of

trashing the environment. The catastrophic effects

of climate change can be seen in “Nightmare Ka-

trina II” painted by El Franco Lee II and in Sandy

Carson’s photograph of Ike’s aftermath. The

eroded interior landscapes of Stephanie Martz’s

series “Abandoned Decay” give the impression of

physical or even mental disaster. Shawn Camp’s

textured painting appears as an aerial view of

drought-parched earth. The gaps in the abstract

imagery and between the canvases themselves

hint at psychological fissures. Whereas, the title

“Begrebet Angest” refers to the odd urge to leap

felt when facing a precipice.

Questions of faith in this life and the next appear

in two artists’ submissions. James Michael Starr’s

collage of sinners facing their final days evokes

anxiety of the fiery religious type. If that isn’t

enough to scare you straight, the seductive sculp-

ture by Terri Thomas takes its inspiration from me-

dieval torture devices used during the Inquisition.

A small number of submissions dealt with the

threat of violence outside our control. Susan Kem-

ner Reed, a mother of a soldier, subtly engaged

her own anxieties about the Middle East conflict

by making them a backdrop for painted still lifes of

daily domestic rituals. The 2007 Virginia Tech Uni-

versity shooting inspired Darryl Lauster’s sculpted

amphora. His contemporary memorial to victims

of senseless violence takes the form of an ancient

Greek funerary container. “Exploding Sandbags”

by James Van Arsdale questions the things that

protect us. Underlying the irony of these works is

a fear that objects designed to keep us safe may

ultimately cause harm.

Worries about social anxieties seem to be univer-

sal. The delicate ink drawings of Yen-Hua Lee

depict the interconnectedness of friends and fam-

ily, which can sometimes feel like a burden. Kevin

Curry’s interactive sculpture plays with the dis-

quieting sense of being misunderstood or ignored

- perhaps with the aid of the multitude of speakers

they will finally hear you. Social isolation is the

theme of Sarah Roberts’ video shot in a shopping

mall. Some may commiserate with the invisibility

reflected in “Isolation Womb,” while others may

welcome a place to publicly hide. Peter Leighton’s

altered photographs take the challenge of acting

out gender roles as their subject. Here he up-

dates the original love triangle--man, woman, and

serpent--which didn’t work out well in the end.

With a variety of approaches and diverse media,

several artists represented the experience of

feeling anxiety. Mike Whiting’s videogame-

inspired painting parodies this psychological

state. With simple forms derived from oversized

pixels and bold colors, the artist depicts a comi-

cal expression of dread. Performance anxiety

is front and center for Bunnyphonic. The large

photograph she found imagines the stage fright

of playing to a full house. Strangely, two artists

turned a cephalopod into a mascot for anxiety.

Keri Oldham captured the sensations of being

overwhelmed and weighed down with her simple

watercolor of a man with an octopus attached to

his back. And Matthew Winters listed then cre-

ated his own state of anxiety in order to produce

the intricate drawing “Angstopus.”

Repetitive acts, like writing lists, drawing marks,

or pulling needle and thread, seem to be both

symptoms of stress and attempts to establish

order. Making her exquisite cartographic draw-

ings, Kia Neill escapes into a meditative activ-

ity. Despite her fabric sculpture spelling out

an idiom for an unsettled mental state, the neat

repetition of stitches Gretchen Bettes makes

can also be soothing. Conventional wisdom

prescribes, “It’s not work that kills, but worry.”

The process of creating detailed-oriented, hand-

made work can alleviate tension. Yet, when

one views the final products and considers the

dedication of time and concentration, they can

be equally overwhelming.

All in all, what the collective submissions don’t

address about anxiety is just as telling about

our times. Few works engaged with contempo-

rary politics, despite our country having been at

war for the better part of the last decade. The

lack of submissions reflecting the near-collapse

of capitalism and the housing market may sadly

suggest that artists are now just as bad as off

economically as they were before the crash.

Like the anxieties of previous generations about

the future of humankind, contemporary anxiety

seems decidedly personal. Overwhelmed by

things outside of their control, artists appear

generally to retreat and internalize. Following

larger trends in art, work becomes introspective,

narrative, and self-referential. Still, historically

great art comes from tough times. Consider the

explosion of creativity from the abyss of 1920s,

Weimar Germany or late-70s New York - if the

situation really seems that bad right now, things

have got to start looking good.

Andrea Mellard

Assistant Curator, Austin Museum of Art

El Franco Lee II, Nightmare Katrina II, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 36 inches

Sandy Carson, Ike’s Aftermath, Metallic Chromira print, 20 x 20 inches

Stephanie Martz, Vertical Vertigo, Mixed media on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Shawn Camp, Begrebet Angest, Oil and mixed media on canvas, 52 x 54 x 2.5 inches

James Michael Starr, Going to Heaven, Collage on window, 41.75 x 30.5 x 2 inches

Terri Thomas, Spanish Spider (Breast Ripper), Swarovski crystals and beads over form, 24 x 24 x 6 inches

Susan Kemner Reed, Daily News, Teacup, Holbein & Suicida, Oil on paper, 12 x 12 inches

Darryl Lauster, Virginia Tech Amphora, Stoneware, plaster, 27 x 16 x 16 inches

James Van Arsdale, Exploding Sandbag, Canvas, sand, paint, thread, printed paper, 4 x 7 x 1.5 inches

Yen-Hua Lee, Burden, Ink on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Kevin Curry, Speech!, Acrylic and PVC sheet, speakers, microphone and amplifier, 37 x 53 x 12 inches

Sarah Roberts, Isolation Womb (Mall), digital video still, Dimensions variable

Peter Leighton, Cryptome, Digitally altered photograph, 22 x 22 inches

Mike Whiting, Panic, Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 inches

Bunnyphonic, Ophicleide Stop, Found Photograph, 47 x 48 x 1 inches

Keri Oldham, MMK, Watercolor, 9 x 12 inches

Matthew Winters, Angstopus, Ink on paper, 30 x 22 inches

Kia Neill, Cartographic Drawing No. 16, Graphite on lacquered metal, 21 x 21 inches

Gretchen Bettes, Twiddling Thumbs, Hand-stitched cotton gloves, cotton thread, 71 x 12 inches