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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Rene Joseph @ Flatland Gallery
Wednesday 21 August @ 10:03:26 |
 by Mathew Timmons
The first thing I asked Robyne Robinson was, “How do you manage to throw such a great party?” There was a live webcast, two bands in the parking lot, a live DJ, free wine, and what seemed like a collection of all the beautiful people in the Twin Cities. There was also the occasion and the work gracing the walls of the gallery. Robyne replied that it was easy to throw such a great party because these cities are so full of dynamically creative people, and she urged me simply to enjoy myself.
The new show of collage work by Rene Joseph and paintings by Kii Arens celebrates Flatland’s second anniversary. The opening fiesta was mostly about getting down, seeing and being seen, and having a few free drinks, but since I came alone I spent most of my time on the drinks and simply seeing. Rene Joseph’s work lent itself to her stated objective as an artist, “to see beyond the camera’s eye, to see inside myself, and to locate the subconscious images there.” Her current series, based upon work from “Time Flies in a Dog’s Life: 12 Rebuses Using Mathematical Logic,” exhibits her strong backgrounds in both art and mathematics. The work also had me fumbling for a dictionary in order to find out exactly what a rebus is. She defines it as “a picture riddle to solve.” I felt riddled by the paradox of simplicity and complexity which artists often strive for. Her paper collage work seemed to be continually inflating and conflating upon streamlined yet nuanced symbolic meanings. I knew I had found someone with her own symbolic center with which to create from.
Throughout the work her twelve basic symbols were repeated, and recut across nearly thirty different pieces. (As a side note, if you’re having troubles with titles you should check hers out. She definitely has a knack for them.) It really was her specific visions that attracted me to her work. In each piece she is dealing with the duality of sight, with inner vision, inner and outer worlds, and the mysterious meanings that come out of them. Rene has obviously been listening to those little voices that whisper to us about the connections between seemingly diffident phenomena.
Anyone that can bring such work to an established gallery space should be watched. Robyne Robinson has been so successful with her young gallery that it makes one wonder if she might be moving away from her work at Channel 9. Either way she should be commended for helping to find and exhibit some of the best new work on the local scene. She’s always able to find more ‘hits’ than ‘misses’ for me.
Rene Joseph and Kii Arens exhibit continues through Sept. 5. Flatland Gallery Hours: Mon. – Wed. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Thu. 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.; Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Sat. 11 am. – 2 p.m./5:30 p.m. – 12 a.m.208 E. Hennepin Ave., Mpls. 612-378-3890.
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