Shotgun Review Archive

Joshua Pieper: Makings

Pieper is one of those elusive types of artists that people can refer to but can't possibly recall how intrinsically beautiful his work is until another exhibition arrives to his credit. Blankspace provided another opportunity to take a look July 15 through August 19th with Makings, a solo show of Pieper's selected images taken from packing materials and discard at spaces where Pieper works as a preparator. Pieper's archival inkjet prints portrayed such re-usable entities, formed and then again reformed for the safe transport of art, as reviewed or reassessed sculptural work of their own merits: packed atop garbage cans, folded and organized on a flat wheel dolly bed, a lone broom and pallet partnered flat against a wall. Safety of art articles are a business onto itself and whilst Pieper supports his creations in part by ensuring the delivery and display execution of other artists' work, Makings read largely as a moment of still aftermath. All of Pieper's prints presented the formally used as vehicles working towards the 'greater whole' (so to speak), a means to an ends, and most intriguingly-- a tenancy of sculptural forms at work in their own right. That said, Makings resisted any far-reaching statement on the materials that are not of any rare specimen by far, (packing bubbles, spray paint cans, masking tape, et al), but did take notice of the fragility of art and article, a phase apart from origination. The sculptural forms found within the materials posed as prop are a work of assembly, a redirection of the utilitarian. Overall, Makings seemed to be wrought heavily in the immediately visible: no larger contextual argument or message needed to be distilled--just a consequentially thought-out conceptualized arrangement of form and materials in their natural environment. Makings was a quiet exhibition that either had relevance or not depending on the time spent assessing the shapes and structures of the materials and the visual satisfaction of the contrasts (materials, colors, compositions) that lain therein. What made Pieper's exhibition fragmentally unreadable, or lacking of continuity at times, was the sense that Pieper nervously filled the space of the gallery with physical matter as plausible matching hosts of the materials captured in the prints. As such, the physical matter proved to be unmatched twins, and acted only to take away from the prints, (gorgeously framed), that lined the wall. The authenticity of the articles featured in the prints went lost against the immediate filler that clogged up the gallery space. Also on view: Pieper produced limited edition handmade artist books available at Blankspace in conjunction with Makings. Minimally constructed, filled with images resulting from Makings, these books are well worth the travel up San Pablo. http://www.blankspacegallery.com http://www.joshuapieper.com/