All Ladies Video Review

UTSA Satellite Space
1/1/09-1/25/09


Joey Fauerso's Ian [Be Still] 2008 and Karen Mahaffy's Untitled [Look Up] 2008 have more similarities than just parenthetical subtitles, both works focus on our placement in a beautiful world and the contemplative nature of humanity. In Ian, Fauerso uses found drawings of doves, tree branches, flowers as an animated back drop for a stagnant portrait. In some cases the cliche, posterish drawings seem to emanate from the photo realist painting of a shirtless boy. Fauerso suggests that by remaining still "Ian" is serving as a conduit for the ever changing world around him. The boy serves as a symbol of humanness and Fauerso wants us to follow his lead by being still.

Not unlike Ian, Mahaffy's work hopes to redirect our attention towards the oft forgotten spaces surrounding. [Look Up] draws our focus to the circle created by the armature of a parking garage entrance ramp. Projected on the wall, the shot takes on the quality of a port hole, the sky, clouds, and birds sliding past. By taking the vertical perspective and turning it horizontal, Mahaffy forces the viewer to recognize the powerful combination of two commonalities, the sky and the framing of the parking garage. Both Fauerso's and Mahaffy's works seem to encourage simple, slow observation of the world and the discovery of the sublime. Be still and look up.