Visit the Viking Union in VU 507 for a journey in disrupted expectations
By Josh Hughes
Walking into the VU Gallery on a lazy afternoon, the first thing that grabs your attention are the bulbous, deteriorating canvases against the wall of the exhibit space. Some four feet tall, with white residue collecting on the floor and wrapped up in what appears to be a broken conveyor, the artwork immediately recalls a sense of disconnect or possibly the rigidity of typical gallery constraints.
But as you get closer, you find that the “canvas” is actually ceramic, and on the floor lie broken pieces of the sculpture. Underneath the white there is a brief glimpse into another layer—a blue layer that hints at something further to be revealed. Naturally, a frustration starts to sink in at the inability to interact with the work. As it stands as a sculpture, nothing exists inside it beyond what we see externally, and we are left with a somewhat impenetrable work.
“The paradox of trying to understand when to conform and when not to conform is a dilemma; when does it matter and when does it not; when is it self-inflicted and when is it unavoidable?”
Jake Fetterman, a recent Western graduate, thrives in the medium of ceramic sculpture, and “Immaterial Uniformity” is his first full show at Western and his fifth full exhibit overall. Living in Bellingham refining his craft before going off to graduate school, Fetterman’s work in the gallery seeks to unmask internalizations about the awkwardness of conforming on a day to day basis.
“Immaterial Uniformity is an attempt to acknowledge the forceful requirement of uniformity within this culture. The struggle to navigate this construct in day to day life forces me to embrace the disasters and awkwardness that is a direct result of my humanness,” Fetterman’s writeup for the exhibit, which quietly resides as the only piece of writing in the gallery space, declares. There are no titles, no descriptions of medium, or remotely any explanations of the individual works beyond the overarching theme.
Beyond the eye grabbing ceramic floor canvases, the next most prominent pieces in the exhibit are the hung ceramic canvases that appear contorted and crumpled, like half-crushed pieces of gift wrap on Christmas morning. They work to a similar effect as the other pieces in the sense that something feels lost and inaccessible, trapped in the aesthetically beautiful sculpture.
It’s exactly this disconnect that Fetterman seems to be striving for, where the art on display conjures ideas of the once (and still fairly) heralded Eurocentric art gallery, a space that traditionally has existed within tight constraints of minimal, spare aestheticism. But instead of El Grecos and Titians, the focus is placed on the physical space that the art occupies. While the ceramic works consist of bright, mesmerizing gradients, they convey a conflict of self; simultaneously fighting against and giving into immaterial uniformity, or the futility of constraint and conformity.
Jake Fetterman’s exhibit will be up in the VU Gallery, located at VU 507, until February 17.
ABOVE: None of the installations have individual titles, and besides a brief explanation of the project as a whole, there is no further information about the pieces. Photos by Janna Bodnar // AS Review