If you're looking to add a new dimension to your daily routine, consider taking an art break and view the new exhibit titled "Malaise" through Nov. 13 at the Hutchinson Center for the Arts. It features the work of two Minnesota regional artists: Liz Miller of Good Thunder and Chris Allen of Rochester.
Miller, a professor of installation and drawing at Mankato State University, and Allen, who has worked as an arts educator, gallery owner and cake decorator, submitted their work through the art center's call for exhibition proposals. It was Lisa Bergh, executive director of the art center, who saw the commonalities of color, repetition, use of non-traditional materials and the tying of knots over and over and thought to put the two artists together for this event. She liked the scale shift from Liz's large-scale knotted sculptural objects to Chris's small-scale beaded sculptures.
"I was so excited when I saw that," Allen said of the pairing. "I've admired Liz's work for so long."
"I knew Chris' work through the arts community," Miller said. " I thought it was a really cool pairing, and a great example of curators, people like Lisa, who see the potential to have a dialogue in the space."
In case you peeked in the windows of the art center this past week, you may have seen how the space is being transformed. All the panels and pedestals have gone from flat white to a cheery mint green. They will play supporting roles to the exhibit that includes all the colors of the rainbow.
"When I wear my curator hat at the art center, I am always looking for ways to encourage audiences to move beyond the initial act of seeing art as just objects and be open to the experience of an exhibit," Bergh said. "Perfect for the times, both artists are exploring their experiences and responses to the pandemic and the shared anxieties of society. The exhibit is visually compelling, overwhelming, entertaining and thought-provoking."
The title for the exhibit, "Malaise," was developed through collaborative brainstorming. It was Miller who threw out the word thinking they could do something with it or use it to inspire other words.
Artist Chris Allen is organizing a variety of her small, beaded objects during installation day on Thursday at the Hutchinson Center for the Arts. She uses a traditional Native American sewing technique known as a peyote stitch.
"It describes 2020," Miller said. "In my work, a lot of time I use bright colors, pattern, that is the part that is fun. The work I'm doing, the material is unraveling, structure is undulating, it can't sustain itself. It's an abstract conversation between structure and structure collapse. I like the fact it points the viewer to look at the work from a slightly different vantage point."
Allen's work is based in textile techniques. She uses small seed beads in a traditional Native American sewing technique known as a peyote stitch.
"I'm using it in a temporary way to create skin that goes around stone," she said. "This pairing of the two materials creates a spiritual metaphor. For me, it's a meditative experience. Each beaded skin takes me about 40 hours. Some are tiny, so they don't take that long. They are windows to the soul. You can see and touch the rock within."
Bergh describes the exhibit as "rooted in the anxiety and uncertainty of the times."
"When visiting the gallery, viewers will experience the obsessive repetition, tension and infrastructure of their works in both a physical and emotional response," she said. "Miller, making large-scale sculpture works from knotted ropes, and Allen, creating small beaded objects, present the beauty in the precariousness of all that surrounds us."
In viewing her work, Allen wants people to personally feel hope.
“I think we're in a very unprecedented time," she said. "We're living through something most people have never experienced. There is so much uncertainty, but I think we're going to be OK. We just have to be patient.”
Liz Miller is displaying 10 pieces titled “Talisman 1-10.” During their creation, Miller said she was thinking about the idea of a talisman and that it’s something that holds magical powers. “I’m really interested in this kind of repetitive body as a process that holds a lot of strength and resilience” she said.
Miller said the viewer's first impression of her work is about the materials.
“I love the colors,” she said. “I hope the work encourages them to spend time and see more than that. I hope it causes them to ask questions."
Q&A WITH THE ARTISTS
Describe your work in 15 words or less
Miller: Abstract, materially intensive, fiber-based works that explore ideas related to infrastructure and perception.
Allen: My work addresses themes of spiritual healing, personal growth and epiphanies utilizing marginalized materials.
How has the way you work with materials/ideas evolved over the span of your career?
Miller: When I started out, I was pursuing a career as a painter. It didn’t take me long to realize that I am a horrible painter, but that I do have a decent sensibility with collage and non-traditional materials. The shift to more sculptural environments was very gradual, as I have no formal background or experience in sculpture. For most of the past decade I have worked primarily in site-specific installations comprised of flexible materials such as fabric and paper. These materials inhabit a magical space that can be 2D, 3D or both. I love working with simple materials that can be manipulated without technical processes or power tools.
More recently, my installation work led me back to the wall, (which is the type of work on display at the art center) as I became fascinated by the hundreds of knots I was tying to rig the installations. I decided to focus on the knots and rope alone. These new works are a combination of everything I’ve done as an artist up to this point — materially and conceptually. I am a slow, steady worker, and shifts in my work happen over long periods of time. A change in the work is often sparked by a simple observation of my own process, or just kind of playing with ideas in the studio until something clicks.
Allen: During this pandemic, my world has turned upside down and has sometimes been scary and very confusing. I have also realized this unexpected time may be a gift for creating new work I previously could only dream and sketch. I can loosen up, be less of a purest, explore other techniques I’ve been curious about and consider the mess I don’t understand might make sense later in my work.
Artists Chris Allen, left, and Liz Miller installed their new exhibit, "Malaise," at the Hutchinson Center for the Arts. In the foreground is Allen's small-scale beaded sculptures and in the background is Miller's large-scale knotted sculptures. Allen has exhibited her work in galleries throughout the United States, while Miller has exhibited nationally and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants.
What is the first art work you remember making?
Miller: I don’t know that I can identify a single work, but I can say that drawing was part of my childhood from the beginning. My parents were both computer programmers. My mom would bring home huge boxes of paper. On one side of the paper was the green and white pattern with the code written on it (It seems so crazy to think about that now, ancient times!). The plain side became a never-ending drawing surface for us. The paper was perforated, so we could tear out individual sheets or make ginormous drawings that spanned entire hallways. By providing us with this surface and a box of crayons, my mom made the activity of drawing seem like something everyone did, and I spent hours entertaining myself this way.
Allen: I remember thinking as a child that I was not artistic at all. My younger sister draws naturally and was considered "the artist" of our family, I was 7 or 8, in my room alone, and I had an urge to draw a yellow bathtub duck. It was suddenly like being in my own bubble and I knew what to do. I showed my sister, then she said let’s show mom! My mom thought for sure the drawing was Jessie’s at first. My sister is still my biggest fan, and she still draws.
What do you like to do for fun outside of your studio?
Miller: I love spending time with my husband, David, and our two standard poodles, Edward and Greta. We live in the small town of Good Thunder, which is surrounded by a beautiful natural landscape with woods, rivers and gravel roads that go on and on. I am an avid runner and have just started getting into cycling. I’m also becoming a better cook.
Allen: Most fun for me is gardening. I love flowers. It is amazing to watch a seed evolve into a ripe tomato. There is a beautiful power in a victory garden, especially this year. I think and plan all winter. (I) figure out which seeds are needed, start them, transplant, replanting when the time is right, watering, weeding, harvesting and preserving. I have beds at home and am also part of a community farm called The Village here in Rochester. The farm focuses on growing food to donate to a local food shelf called Channel One, which my mother founded in 1984.
