BEN DAVIDOFF

Fiber art graduate students Kerry Phillips (front) and Mary Babcock relax in an empty Rombach Gallery room where their artwork "Residue," which focuses partly on forms of human procedure and communication, is being exhibited. "Residue" is segmented into two acts that will be exhibited tomorrow and August 31 from 5-7 p.m.

Tuesday August 21, 2001 |

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Graduate art candidates work on communication

Act Two opens August 31 5-7

The best part of the Twinkie may just be the cream filling.

Fiber arts graduate students Mary Babcock's and Kerry Phillip's collaborative art installation will occur in two acts at the Rombach Gallery in the Fine Arts Complex.

Their upcoming art experience, "Residue In Two Acts," is a stab at trying to get past the sponge cake and into the elusive cream.

Act One's opening involves no visual art but reception food and a visitor comment book - this opening reception will be repeated each day for a week.

Babcock explained, "Act one is about looking at art as a context for communication within a gallery setting."

Phillips added, "We are addressing the issue of how art communicates in the context it is in, and what are the assumptions you make when you walk into a gallery space?"

Both Babcock and Phillips were concerned that the gallery opening would interfere with the experience of their work, so they separated the reception and the art installation into two segments.

"We wanted to get the opening out of the way so it doesn't interfere with experiencing the art," Babcock said.

Babcock and Phillips are aware that people come to a gallery expecting certain things - and they hope they will begin to question that.

"We want people to look at their own expectations when they come to the gallery - the question of expectations is raised in Act One and given clarification in Act Two," Phillips said.

Act Two involves audience participation, but no food and will be offered.

In this half of the presentation, Babcock and Phillips explore the idea of limitations of language to express everyday personal experience.

"Art is so out of context these days," Babcock said. "People go to openings and try to make it be something, but there are no real rituals anymore beyond the (reception) food."

She makes an analogy between a gallery and Tupperware.

"For me the gallery space is like a Tupperware container - they both contain something artificially," Babcock said.

"Gallery space defines the context of the art and limits the work in the process," Phillips explained. "They also seem unnecessary - do I really need a lettuce crisper and the whole Tupperware set in order to eat food? Do I really need a gallery space to contain my art? A gallery seals the work off from the rest of the world."

Babcock received her BFA in painting from the University of Oregon in Eugene. She also has a strong background in psychology, but identifies herself primarily as a fiber artist.

"One of the failings for me with psychology is the reliance on language - I started to become interested in art because talking isn't the way I connect and I feel language is a hindrance to communication," Babcock said.

Babcock became interested in the show to try to express her views on the shortcomings of language.

"There is a misguided assumption that if I talk someone else (they) understand what I am saying," Babcock said.

Phillips received her BFA in art from the Florida International University in Miami.

"We all communicate in different ways - we often assume that the way I communicate is the way you do too - it is this assumption that screws things up," Phillips said.

This show deals with communication specifically through presenting an alternative - silence.

Silence factors into the duo's work on many levels, initially through stark white gallery walls and later through sound dampening headphones participants are offered to put on.

"Silence has a big role because you don't really expect it - and there is not really silence - the white walls are silent when the art is not there," Phillips explained.

"Silence creates space as opposed to just emptiness - a space where something can happen and not just a void - language is a barrier and silence is communication," Babcock said.

Silence also functions to unite the audience in the gallery space.

"Silence acts as a bridge between participants," Phillips said.

Audience participation is a crucial factor in the duo's work.

"Participation is very important - you don't have to dip yourself in cow's blood or eat live snake - people will hopefully simply put on headphones and sit in rocking chairs in the gallery space," Phillips quipped. "Art is always seen as something not touched and I want it to be touched and experienced. I want people to experience the space rather than just observe it as an outsider."

"When people participate in our show, a connection is possible without language," Phillips said.

Babcock and Phillips are raising the question of, "Can we find connection?"

Their answer might be, "Only if you can listen carefully."

Also, the duo explores words as, "containers for ideas, thoughts and actions."

Babcock and Phillips find these "containers" limiting and pose the question, "are words enough?"

Their answer

Is the gallery a big enough space to contain these ideas·