Knoxville First Friday, pt. 2

by JAIME.SP

Sandwiches eaten, sweet tea guzzled, bathroom trip taken - we headed out for the A1 Lab Arts exhibition Oh, Ophelia at the A1 Lab Arts Pegboard Gallery. En route we came across some awesome graffiti as well as some beautiful live music coming from The Art of Living. I found it interesting (and amusing) that my most poignant artistic experiences of the evening had so far occurred outside the gallery.

When we pulled up to the Pegboard Gallery, the atmosphere was immediately different from Gay Street. The old brick warehouse had a handmade banner that said, "ART SPACE" hanging outside the entrance. A circle of smokers were chatting around an inflatable kiddie pool as we entered, and although I felt like an outsider among people who seemed to know each other, everyone was friendly. Inside the door, a large wall mural reading "a1labarts" in red, black, and white with a much smaller sign that pointed bathroom seekers down a vaguely sinister looking hallway.

There was no air conditioning. They used fans with ice and sangria to cool down the joint. The sangria was the only thing I consumed while there, despite an assortment of pretzels, chips and fruit. It was delicious. And amongst the groups of people talking, mostly around the food table, there was a stereo playing what sounded like rock music with a twist of punk. It was not very loud, but loud enough to assist in "tone" of the gallery.

The work itself, overall, was more engaging than the work at the Top Choice show. There was some risk taking, some sex, some violence, some poetry, some sadness, some ugliness, some beauty. Many people took the Ophelia idea in a very literal direction with women dressed in loosely identifiable period costumes reminiscent of the Shakespeare performance in Market Square we had witness earlier. Or women floating lifelessly in water. Other people approached it much more loosely. Loose interpretations seemed to coincide with a desire to depict some manifestation of violence or sexuality. I saw both approaches done successfully.

evidence

digital photography
Sara Blair McNally

21st Century Ophelia: No More of That Victim Shit

photography

Denise Stewart-Sanabria

Story of O - Gulf of Mexico

silverprint photograph

Donna Moore

for the gallery

crayon & paper

Lucy Cacella Lou McNally

(I may have butchered the name. My tag photo is extremely blurry.)

Which is not to say that all of the pieces were "successful". Since the show was not juried, I had expected as much, although it still wasn't nearly as much of a free-for-all glorified shit storm as I had expected when dropping my work off at the gallery, not knowing anything about it or the art community in Knoxville. Am I really that pessimistic? You bet. I've been to more than my share of non-juried, pile your crap over in that corner and we'll hang it up shows. It ain't pretty. Of course, A1 Lab Arts is not that kind of group.

Unfortunately, I slipped in remembering

to photograph the tags for every piece I photographed.

If you know whose work this is, feel free to let me know

and I'll update this post.

Olivia LaRose with her oil painting Displacement.

I guess because I was walking around with a big damn camera,

she thought I was someone special or something.

Turns out I'm just a young lady with a blog.

Two hidden women equals one missing man

mixed media

Jean Hess

Untitled and Faces of Ophelia

photography

Jessica Weltner

I think they're supposed to be together.

(There was a third photograph of a flower.)

I don't like the portraits at all, but the flowers

have a very visceral quality I enjoy.

Ophelia Climbing a Willow

pencil on paper & an old book

Bob Thompson

Considering it was a non-juried show, it held up to the like of the Top Choice Exhibition, which was meticulously picked through. Smaller scale, less fondue. Not less quality.

I almost forgot! There was also an Ophelia digital pinhole camera photobooth! In a spot lit, enclosed space people were invited sit down in front of a light blue sheet of fabric and use plastic flowers as props. It was a lot of fun and the picture turned out very haunting and beautiful. (I'm assuming it did for a lot of people. That's the beauty of pinhole style. It's too blurry and unrefined to catch your sharper features, your "flaws".) Images will be available on the A1 Lab Arts website.

Goodnight, Knoxville.