Lisa Walcott: Less Still is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University as part of the MSU Federal Credit Union Artist Studio Series, a program that invites artists to interact with the community through site-specific installations and educational encounters that offers insight into artists’ creative processes. Generous support is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union.
About the Exhibition
Less Still is an exhibition including comical and lingering gestures. Materials included are basic, but specific being used for their particular weight and flexibility. Joints are loose to allow for sporadic and unpredictable movements. Metaphors are accessible, but difficult to pin down.
In Swarm, hundreds of black specks are suspended from wires, resembling a large mass of flies. As the wires slowly rotate, they are occasionally disrupted causing a jerky insectile movement from the whole bunch. The hovering swarm recalls nature, comic stink lines or an emotional state. It also implies something attractive or deteriorating nearby, therefore drawing the empty space into the bits of narrative protruding from this piece.
The repetitious alternation between bouncing and hovering in Vice Versa playfully produces a bored tapping sound. The slightly unnatural motion is quite captivating, drawing the onlooker into the present moment. Paradoxically, the persistent tapping makes one conscious of time continually passing on.
Within the shiny, italic interior of the MSU Broad, the playful bouncing, hovering and wobbling of these installations literally activate the space. The gestures highlight the subtle shifts in architecture with straight, gravitationally dictated vertical lines. Each piece has multiple viewing points including the option to weave between the bouncing rubber balls or view the mechanism that controls Swarm from the second floor overlook.
Lisa Walcott is interested in things that slip through your fingers, flash before your eyes or hover in the spaces between. This includes the smoke curls, gurgling bubbles, or more agitating movements, such the buzzing circuit of an irritating housefly. From intangible places, comes artwork that is lyrical, sometimes sensual and often uncanny. It is constantly moving, but stuck in a single moment; isolated, but full of room to guess. Part absurdist vignette, part surrealist ditty, the artwork of this Michigan artist offers a unique experience that tends to linger in one’s memory long after viewing.