Under the Radar, The Willis Remembered
September 6th through October 21st
Detroit Artists Market

With the Detroit Artists Market Box Show, a tribute to the Willis Gallery upon us, (see Vince Carducci’s companion piece “Still Creative After All These Years” for more on the history behind this), some questions might be raised about the notion of working “in the box” – in this case quite literally.

Often we view being in the box as a trap, a limitation, that keeps us from being as creative, as free as we can be. The thought is that we have to think “outside of the box” in order to truly be creative, to truly be free.

There’s much truth to this, of course, for in following the rules too tightly, in thinking too rigidly about what’s already established – staying in the box – we create nothing new. But there’s a flipside to this, in being too far outside the box, with nothing to give form to our thoughts, we end up in a state of Chaos, with little to provide stability.

For this exhibition, everyone was given a box quite literally. Yet the results are anything but narrow or similar. Each individual accepted the challenge of the limitation and in staying within their particular box made it into their own statement. The results of an open call would of course be different, but the diversity on hand for this show is extraordinary.

And in some ways, we’re always working within one box or another. There are limitations of time, materials, skills, and space – restrictions – all boxes within which we create as we can.

And truthfully, even outside one box, we are always enclosed by a larger one – that is the box that is our lives, the box that is this earth, the box that are the laws of physics.

However, that does not in any way make the play within those boxes any less grand.

And so it is that in straddling that edge between in the box and outside of the box that we create. In finding our balance, we learn that the restriction of the box is also a sort of freedom, in fact the box – the rules of the games at which we play – are what make things possible.

Mathematician G. H. Hardy characterizes the creative breakthrough as containing unexpectedness combined with inevitability and economy. We play inside and outside the box and inevitably, the unexpected – something surprising and miraculous happens. *

And thus it is with the DAM Box Show. Each of the approximately 200 boxes on display contains something unexpected and grand in its own way. So many different approaches, it seems hard to believe that they all began with the same, tiny tin box.

It’s difficult to partition the various works into categories (place them in boxes), but we might at least try to give a sense of what one can expect to see starting this Wednesday.

There are those who stayed within the confines of their box – decorating its exterior and interior, and those who exploded their work far from its borders, and the box remained but a tiny aspect of the final piece.

Joseph Bernard’s “Gypsy Elegy” (on our cover this week), made use of his quite flattened box as an element of his painterly composition. Mark Sengbusch offered up an homage to Bernard, with his design based piece, incorporating the box and bottle caps. Susan Goethel Campbell stayed true to the ethereal nature of much of her body of work by capturing an “impression of a box” on paper. Christine Hagedorn, Joyce Brienze, and Craig Paul Nowak incorporated the box as an element within their work.

John Piet’s wonderfully ornate piece holds an added surprise – in looking extremely closely through a tiny jewel in the work, he’s ingeniously hidden another image within. Mike Sivak brought a similarly intense altar-like construction of rabbits and religious iconography, as did Julie Renfrew – though with fewer rabbits!

For some, the box became integrated into a machine, as with Miroslav Cukovic’s sound sculpture. Carl Oxley III illustrated his box in his specific style, then incorporated it into a working, toy piano. The collaborative Reject Effect used their box as part of “Amazing Race ‘n Chase” a set of radio controlled cars – very cool! Robin Sommers’ box became part of delightfully elegant mechanical clock.

Some boxes become a new object – as in Jim Hock’s Functional, wearable brooch– “Buckle Boy,” nicely displayed on a mannequin. Richard Voytowich’s “Bubbles” is a tiny, complex sculpture playing off the box, while Paul Kotula slightly modified his box to mount it quite successfully in a corner – the only site specific piece in the show.

A few folks played off of the idea of the box, like Ron Morosan’s Pan-Dora, minimally altered, with a poetic offering about the boxes we’ve opened and the paths we’re headed down as a result. Gregory Rokicki also tackled the Pandora’s box idea. Sambuddha Saha took a more conceptual approach to the box, with “Half ‘n Half” a clever reference to Schrödinger’s Cat (in a box).

Robert Sestok tore his box asunder, with jagged strips of metal sprawled akimbo. Ben Kiehl’s piece appears to be a crumpled piece of paper torn from a notebook, but it is in fact his box, flattened, crumpled and then painted to perfectly create this illusion. Brad and Vaughn Taormina display an exotic creature creation, with box hidden somewhere inside.

Of course, many folks used the box as a box – to contain objects. Christine Gibbs “Palm,” contained two sculptural casts of the space within her closed fist. Suzanne Andersen filled hers with ceramic candy statements. Sergio De Giusti’s both contained a sculptural bust and was displayed by a hand sculpture. Susan McDonald created a lovely functioning Jacob’s Ladder which stores neatly within her box, and others used the box to hold story books, cards, and even flip books. Jack Summers’ “Zakoom” is an accordion like series of images scanned from comic books. Rose DeSloover’s box, “Domestication of Colors” is similarly laid out, with each page containing her trademark color swatches. Gary Schwartz inserted a tiny etch-a-sketch within which he used to write the words “buy this box” upon it.

Some boxes became tiny worlds within. Shirley Parish transformed hers into a suitcase with miniature items from Detroit and Venice within. Brooke Keesling created a fantastic scene and Michelle Perron offered up a tribute to the Willis Gallery, with a three-dimensional scene referencing Michigan’s up north and the outdoors, against a backdrop with an image of the gallery.

Additionally there are on hand an amazing number of works more political in nature. Our own Vince Carducci contributed a piece carrying a message viral in nature. David Barr’s speaks of the attack on the Bill of Rights, as do both Stephen Magsig and Janet Hamrick – whose exteriors were adorned in their signature styles with interiors addressing civil liberties on the interior. Dolores Slowinski’s box speaks to the true price of crude oil, Steve Collister displays tiny army toys and asks what our leaders played with as children, while Meredith Rae Krell’s imagery asks us to “Fight War Not Wars.” This outpouring of considered political thought is encouraging and speaks to the power of art as a communicator of ideas.

And of course, there’s a lot more to see. I only mentioned a few, a taste if you will. The silent auction starts Wednesday and runs through Friday. A follow up show, featuring a retrospective of the original Willis Box shows will begin the following week. More details below. Come check out the creativity and expressivity of Detroit area artists as they work in and out of the box. – Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

(Full Disclosure: I was asked to distribute five such boxes, and collaborated on my own piece with Leah Keller-Transburg.)

*The “In the Box/Out of the Box” was adapted from the text for my “Block,” another box of sorts, created for the Grosse Pointe Art Association’s upcoming Block Art Auction opening September 15th.

(see Vince Carducci’s companion piece “Still Creative After All These Years” for more on the history behind this)

Silent auction runs Wednesday, September 6 through Friday, September 8. The opening reception and final bidding, will take place Friday, September 8 from 5:30-10 p.m.; bidding will end at 9 p.m. Closing reception will take place on Friday, October 20 from 5:30 – 10:00 p.m.

Willis Gallery Box Show Retrospective 1993 - 1996
September 12 - October 21

GALLERY TALK: Saturday, October 7, 2:00 - 3:00 PM