Review: Jessica Stewart and Keristin Gaber

"I am here describing the taste of water to no one and everyone in particular."

This is the first sentence that each viewer will see peering through what seems to be a torn-out eyehole. It's a phrase, without a doubt that you will ponder before and after your walkthrough, as it unintentionally frames the works of artists Jessica Stewart and Keristin Gaber.

Due to this year's NASAD review, each senior has had to pair with one another, splitting and sharing their show space to accommodate everyone's BFA opening in an orderly fashion. Given the minimal space we have in the photography dept., what seemed like an oppressive task has now been indisputably diverted by Jessica’s and Keristin's collaborative show Mid/Way.

Both infinitely distinct and seamlessly integrated, the pieces on the wall call for our attention. Varied through whispers and shouts, the works are as uncompromising as they are vulnerable.

It is just paper after all. (and glass)

To be fooled twice is humiliating enough, but three times, well that’s past the point of absurdity. This is Keristin Gaber’s claim. Her work discloses the nonsensical while simultaneously tries to reason with it. To me it's an endless breath; the immovable shadow avoids its architect and by doing so creates its own agenda: a new one. Each piece follows a similar role.

Fool Me Thrice could be seen as a reactionary element, fulfilling the establishments of a space while also protesting the preconceptions that leach onto it. Underneath the interface of its sincere composure, lies a hint of turmoil, proclaiming an unwritten declaration of the absurdity that comes within it.

As Keristin revises our surfaces by stripping them of their concreteness, Jessica Stewart decidedly side steps the walls by punching right through them. A feeling to fall is present; reminding us that depth is the greatest of heights. Each hole is an examination of fear, a psychological mystique that only a patient with cunning ambitions could portray.

Earlier in the year, I would have described Jessica’s photographs as concealed wounds, an inescapable presence absent for the mind to penetrate. Looking at the work now I must digress. The work assures you that the obscure will never cease to expand. A small transformation of scale has liberated the photographs to their fundamental state, and each hole, collapsing the surface of each construction, abides synonymously within the cracks of our skin, the breaks in our bones, flooding straight to the darkest depths of our psyche.

Within the hemisphere of art, subjective reasoning can be as claustrophobic as it is ambiguous. Sometimes it is best to think of your frame…

…So again, this is just paper I’m writing about. Paper In Space. (Oh and glass too)

Congrats to both of you,

<3 <3 George

-Now that we are in prime show season, expect reviews from both Charlie and me in the upcoming weeks. Also make sure you come to each show. THERE ARE SO MANY!!!!!