Vadis Turner and James Rieck

Gallery 1

Lyons Wier Gallery is pleased to announce Dowry by Vadis Turner.

As handmade objects are passed down through time, they become increasingly precious and culturally relevant. Turner’s work engages in the transformative legacy of object to heirloom to historical artifact. Ultimately, the work functions as a portrait of the artist, her origins and her time(s).

Re-imagining traditional handicrafts made by women, Turner has synthesized gender roles and rites of passage to create a series of contemporary heirlooms that illustrate the values of her generation. This body of work comprises her “Dowry”, a material and cultural measure of her worth as a woman and as an artist.

Turner’s “Dowry” includes a site-specific installation, “Reception”, that lavishly celebrates and politely ignores the conventions of marriage, specifically consummation.

Other heirlooms comprising her “Dowry” are in the form of Fabergé-like eggs wrapped with human hair, bodily organs constructed with discarded jewelry and s(e)x swings made with antique quilts and a wedding dress.

Traditionally exchanged for marital advancement, Turner’s “Dowry” will be traded for currency and/or professional gain.

Gallery 2

Lyons Wier Gallery is pleased to announce “Issues with Authority” by James Rieck.

All of James Rieck’s compositions have been inspired by and gleaned from commercial catalogs. Having delved through corporate annual reports, couture fashion catalogs, How-to-Knit and wedding catalogs, he has now turned his focus on the Halloween costume.

Through amplified scale and severe cropping “Issues with Authority” re-contextualizes the source material to draw attention to the obvious as well as the subtle psychological underpinnings of the model and the viewer.

Rieck delivers an exhibition that simultaneously embraces and dismisses the body politic, and opens a dialogue about physical and mental control, manipulation and what constitutes dominance and subordination.

Pared down to just slivers, Rieck’s paintings dominate and titillate the viewer into near arrest. Uncertainty and a sense of implied violence blur the thin blue line, while neither confirming nor condoning part or participant. Both politically and sexually charged, “Issues with Authority” addresses obsession and the illusion of power as well as the viewer’s willingness to surrender to both.

“Issues with Authority”

Perp: Look! I don’t want any trouble man… I’ve got no beef with the fuzz. My issue with authority has nothing to do with the law. It’s just that these days it seems everybody is their own authority and an expert in everything. It’s like if you don’t know something you can just Google it…just look around, people are acting like kings and no one but themselves can see their crown.

Perp: I got it! I have the right to remain silent, but it seems to me that whenever the cops get involved, violence enters the picture. It’s not like it’s their fault or anything. It’s just that they have the power to hold people outside of their will, and you know, they have weapons…

Perp: Okay! I confess… I cropped off their heads, and sliced them in half, then I squeezed them into these slivers, so go ahead and arrest me…but look these woman have power and they’re not giving in. They’re larger than life, displayed with dignity – like they’re from a catalog of Authority.

Perp: I know these girls are in police costumes…I know I know, they’re sexy costumes, but you know…authority is just an illusion and a sexy illusion at that. I mean – it’s all about suspending our disbelief…surrender right? Like we want to give in to illusion and be told how to proceed, right?

Perp: Yeah, they’re just paintings, I know…I mean, I’m just saying… If you’re gonna be busted by 5-0, why not be busted by Charlie’s Angels?

James Rieck – 2009