By M. Stephanie Murray
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 30, 1997

Practicing what they preach

Tanith L. Balaban Arizona Daily Wildcat Ellen McMahon's "Maternal Ambivalence" is one of the faculty-produced works in the Faculty Art Exhibition at the UA Museum of Art. The show runs through Nov. 9.

The easiest way to make a teacher sneer is to quote that old cliché: Those who can't do, teach.

The Art Faculty Exhibition at the UA Museum of Art proves that wrong. Featuring painting, sculpture, multimedia pieces and a surprising amount of ink jet printing, this display of the work of current UA art department faculty is an intriguing look into the themes and techniques being taught.

Ken Shorr, associate professor of art, is one of the most striking presences in the show. His multimedia piece, "Because Everyone Is Trying to Stab Me, Poison Me, and Kill Me, I Must Be Important," is the first thing one stumbles upon when entering the show space. Five books, encased in cracked plastic glass, their pages ripped out, top a pedestal. The titles of the eviscerated books range from I Married Adventure, featuring two nude Johnny Weissmuller-types embracing on the cover, to Iron and Steel Division: 1939, obviously a technical reference book. This ideological questioning of what makes a book "safe" or "dangerous" is based on only their outer image; there is literally no content here.

On the other side of the gallery entrance hangs "Pot Party" by Alfred J. Quiroz, associate professor of art. This darkly psychedelic vision of today's tokers features the hallucinated images of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson with blazing pipes. Setting these two clearly imagined historical hemp growers against the teeming reds and oranges of the revelers below strikes the chord of ambivalence that rings between marijuana activists and the potheads down the street.

Keith McElroy, associate professor of art, presents two visions of the southwest, "Tucson Connection: Futuring" and "Tucson Connection: Futuring Too." Combining Arizona Highways-style maps with a reimagining of the features on the map, McElroy sees the state capitol of "Nueva Arizona" in "Greater Tucson," while the area around Phoenix is identified only as "Hazardous Waste Site." The "Nuevo Mexico" map includes a "NASA Intergalactic Space Port" around Roswell. Laid over these maps are puffy-glitter-painted concho belts and Navajo blankets. Subversive in a silly, rather than militant, way.

Working in a similar but rather darker vein are the profiles done by Andrew Polk, Department Head of Art. These grotesque cartoon heads are reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's illustrations, sprouting worms, saguaros, unpleasantly pink people. The details of the illustrations are as disturbing as the images themselves; each segment of each worm is meticulously sketched, as is the ear it emerges from.

Ellen McMahon, assistant professor of art, uses the precision of ink jet printing to investigate "Maternal Ambivalence." Four flash cards present baby accoutrements, bottle nipple, onesie T-shirt, one of those horrible snot-sucking bulbs, with elegant script above each image. "Violation" reads the snot-bulb card. The large, accompanying prints show a woman (possibly McMahon herself) with the onesie T-shirt wrapped around her head; the snaps become eyes and a mouth, the little arms are horns or ears.

These artist/teachers know that art is vital and essential to life, but that there is more to it than beauty or shock value. They play with ideas as easily as they do with the varied mediums of the show.

For these faculty members, art is not just a job, it's an adventure.

The Art Faculty Exhibition runs until Nov. 9 at The University of Arizona Museum of Art. Call 621-7567 for more information.