Multiples Like Rabbits
By D. Eric Bookhardt
In Chris Brumfield's There Was Glory in Them Eggshells, dozens of clay rabbits appear mysteriously on a salvaged wooden staircase.
The French have a term for it. L'heure Bleue, or "the blue hour," refers to that transitional time between day and night favored by painters and photographers, when the light turns magical, people's lives shift gears, and sensations are poetically enhanced, so it's a term that can symbolize such atmospheric experiences. Although Chris Brumfield is an avid clay sculptor and gardener, his primary interest is the poetic resonance of people's lives, especially the way some people associate their memories and experiences with the things they collect, objects charged with poetic symbolism.
This may sound familiar. Certainly the best found-object artists such as Joseph Cornell were geniuses when it came to extracting poetic associations from the little orphaned objects they accumulated. But Brumfield creates his own mementoes out of clay, emphasizing their "blue hour" connotations with liberal applications of blue glaze. Rather than engaging us with traditional paintings or sculpture, Brumfield gives us installations of his own collections of handcrafted and familiar, yet mysterious, curiosities. His Blue Ward is like a medieval village of whimsical clay structures, some resembling huts or houses while others are simply whimsical, period. Look at Me is more pointed, a cluster of clay sculptures of long-barreled pistols clutched menacingly by disembodied hands. Mounted on the wall and pointed at the viewer, their cartoonish lines are as reassuring as their proportions are menacing.
Another installation, There Was Glory in Them Eggshells, features dozens of nearly identical clay rabbits arranged on a salvaged wooden staircase, where they look as uniform and orderly as the legions of terracotta soldiers found in the tomb of the ancient Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang, and just as spooky. But the most Zen moment awaiting the viewer is Trade Deficit, a crab trap filled with clay Buddhas -- not the historic religious Buddha of ancient India, but rather those jolly, fat, good-luck Buddhas that turn up all over Asia and beyond. With his crab traps, clutter and homespun objects, Brumfield reveals -- and seemingly revels in -- his Louisiana origins. Here his sense that collecting is an art form in its own right melds seamlessly with his implicit view that art is a subcategory of magic, that clutter is just another way of imposing order on a notoriously disorderly world.
and here is a link to the article online
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2007-09-04/art_rev.php
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The Blue Hour
The Blue Hour
Featuring new work by Christopher Scott Brumfield
Palma Gallery
828 Howard Ave
New Orleans LA 70113
504) 598-2276
palmagallery@bellsouth.net
White Linen Night
Opening Reception Saturday August 4th, 6 to 9 pm
Through September 29th
The Blue Hour/l'heure bleue
The Blue Hour is an exploration in ceramic sculpture of Memories and Collections. I make collections based on my interest in pattern. Pattern in the way a person arranges the bits on their dresser or in the way they arrange words when they tell a story. There seems to be similar patterns in all things. My sculpture is an attempt to see that pattern. I chose ten parts of my life that I know well and made a sculpture based on each one.
Peace
Christopher Scott Brumfield
www.christopherscottbrumfield.com
I want to dedicate this show to the memory of my grandparents: Richard Caswell Meyers and Rosa Mae Meyers.
I want to thank my mother, Rosemary Meyers Brumfield, and my partner, Darin Michael Pierce. I couldn't do it without you.
To everyone else who helped me see this adventure through, especially my crew, I wish you all the love and happiness this existence has to offer.
And to everyone else, thanks for looking.
Blue hour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The blue hour comes from a French expression (l'heure bleue) which refers to the hour experienced between the hours of daylight and darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day (also in photography) and because in the summer this is often when the smell of the flowers is at their strongest."
There Was Glory In Them Eggshells is about being told to sing "glory in eggshells deo" instead of "Gloria in Excelsis Deo” in my high school choir. The piece is about trying to understand one's own identity as a member of a group, whether on a soccer team, in a congregation, or at a festival, we all have role to play. Walt Whitman said "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars." The substitution of animals for human forms is about this commonality and equality of all life.
I found the Stairs at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse. The Rabbit has been poping up in my work for a little while now. They seem to be a marriage made in Bywater.
Blue Ward is about the notion of a city. I made a city out of clay, including public art, old city walls, animals, and a power plant. There are little bits of New Orleans, little bits of Prague, little bits of Heidelberg, and little bits of Nicosia.
Blue Ward is my favorite piece in the show. Looking at it reminds me of they way I experience good child hood memories.
Clifton's Children is about our relationship to things that are creepy. We like to be scared. I find the combination of little girls with owls on chains pretty creepy, but some of the folks at the opening on Saturday found the idea comforting. It is dedicated to the memory of my friend Clifton, because he would have hated it and I am trying to get his attention.
Self-portrait In Blue represents the ongoing exploration of my own body and its aging.
Look at Me is about a day when the media took one lunatic's manifesto and used it to terrify America.
Meditations On The Spine is just that. It is made out of clay, glass, and old window screens that I turned into a little blue grid.
Trade Deficit speaks of Louisiana buying Mardi Gras beads and crawfish from China, when our trade deficit with that country is hurting our own country. I found the crab trap in the trash mountain that formed on Press Street in the Bywater after the storm. The Buddhas were slip cast and they spent two months in my fountain to get their patina.
Christopher's Garden of Earthly Delights is about my garden. It is my favorite place on Earth, and if asked I will brag shamelessly about its virtues.
Purple Mountain Majesty: Stars and Rockets Forever is about a country that has lost its way. I hope we find it soon. The mountains and stars are made out of clay, the rockets are fabric prints on canvas.
The Gates of Babylon is about language. I combined letters and symbols to explore the patterns of language. The gate explores the relationship of public writing on the evolution of culture. I found the wooden Shutters in trash piles and the ceramic pieces are made out of Clay, vermiculite, and glass. I am interested in the way the shape of language seems to mimic the shape of the body.
Featuring new work by Christopher Scott Brumfield
Palma Gallery
828 Howard Ave
New Orleans LA 70113
504) 598-2276
palmagallery@bellsouth.net
White Linen Night
Opening Reception Saturday August 4th, 6 to 9 pm
Through September 29th
The Blue Hour/l'heure bleue
The Blue Hour is an exploration in ceramic sculpture of Memories and Collections. I make collections based on my interest in pattern. Pattern in the way a person arranges the bits on their dresser or in the way they arrange words when they tell a story. There seems to be similar patterns in all things. My sculpture is an attempt to see that pattern. I chose ten parts of my life that I know well and made a sculpture based on each one.
Peace
Christopher Scott Brumfield
www.christopherscottbrumfield.com
I want to dedicate this show to the memory of my grandparents: Richard Caswell Meyers and Rosa Mae Meyers.
I want to thank my mother, Rosemary Meyers Brumfield, and my partner, Darin Michael Pierce. I couldn't do it without you.
To everyone else who helped me see this adventure through, especially my crew, I wish you all the love and happiness this existence has to offer.
And to everyone else, thanks for looking.
Blue hour
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The blue hour comes from a French expression (l'heure bleue) which refers to the hour experienced between the hours of daylight and darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day (also in photography) and because in the summer this is often when the smell of the flowers is at their strongest."
There Was Glory In Them Eggshells is about being told to sing "glory in eggshells deo" instead of "Gloria in Excelsis Deo” in my high school choir. The piece is about trying to understand one's own identity as a member of a group, whether on a soccer team, in a congregation, or at a festival, we all have role to play. Walt Whitman said "I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journeywork of the stars." The substitution of animals for human forms is about this commonality and equality of all life.
I found the Stairs at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse. The Rabbit has been poping up in my work for a little while now. They seem to be a marriage made in Bywater.
Blue Ward is about the notion of a city. I made a city out of clay, including public art, old city walls, animals, and a power plant. There are little bits of New Orleans, little bits of Prague, little bits of Heidelberg, and little bits of Nicosia.
Blue Ward is my favorite piece in the show. Looking at it reminds me of they way I experience good child hood memories.
Clifton's Children is about our relationship to things that are creepy. We like to be scared. I find the combination of little girls with owls on chains pretty creepy, but some of the folks at the opening on Saturday found the idea comforting. It is dedicated to the memory of my friend Clifton, because he would have hated it and I am trying to get his attention.
Self-portrait In Blue represents the ongoing exploration of my own body and its aging.
Look at Me is about a day when the media took one lunatic's manifesto and used it to terrify America.
Meditations On The Spine is just that. It is made out of clay, glass, and old window screens that I turned into a little blue grid.
Trade Deficit speaks of Louisiana buying Mardi Gras beads and crawfish from China, when our trade deficit with that country is hurting our own country. I found the crab trap in the trash mountain that formed on Press Street in the Bywater after the storm. The Buddhas were slip cast and they spent two months in my fountain to get their patina.
Christopher's Garden of Earthly Delights is about my garden. It is my favorite place on Earth, and if asked I will brag shamelessly about its virtues.
Purple Mountain Majesty: Stars and Rockets Forever is about a country that has lost its way. I hope we find it soon. The mountains and stars are made out of clay, the rockets are fabric prints on canvas.
The Gates of Babylon is about language. I combined letters and symbols to explore the patterns of language. The gate explores the relationship of public writing on the evolution of culture. I found the wooden Shutters in trash piles and the ceramic pieces are made out of Clay, vermiculite, and glass. I am interested in the way the shape of language seems to mimic the shape of the body.
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