Two of my favorite local, conceptual artists are Anne Bousquet and David Johnson.

Both have taught at Old Dominion University. Bousquet is a painter, graphic designer and photographer. Johnson is a photographer. Both of their bodies of work also include collage or assemblage. The two are good friends and their work seems to be inspired by or complimentary of one another. Johnson’s “No Tree” project and Bousquet’s VA Power / Tree on 25^th Street series both make commentaries on how human beings edit the landscape, either for supposed aesthetic reasons or for utilitarian reasons.

Hey, where’d that tree go?

After driving across the country several times, Johnson and his colleague Bob Lake became enamored with a certain tree that sat at the top of the hill in the distant landscape that can be seen from the Golden Gate Bridge. As photographers, they saw the tree as a perfect design element and soon realized that many famous artists and filmmakers had also recognized the tree as such. Sadly, in the summer of 2007 Johnson’s friend called to tell him that the tree was gone. The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy had decided to cut the tree down because it was not a native plant. They also cited “improved visitor experience” as another reason for removal of the tree.

Put Back The Tree by David Johnson.

In response, Johnson and Lake (Bousquet joined in later) started a project begging the question of what it means, exactly, to improve the visual landscape. They returned to the Golden Gate Bridge on Earth Day in 2008 to remind people of the tree that had once been a beautiful part of the Golden Gate experience. They documented themselves at the top of the hill where the tree once stood and posted bills explaining the significance of the tree. The public was invited to “put the tree back” by holding a cardboard cutout of the tree up to the spot where the tree once was. Johnson still collects film stills and old advertisements (pretty much anything he can get his hands on) where artists used the tree as design element.

No Tree - David Johnson.

Like Johnson and Lake, Bousquet is also looking for that perfect design element to photograph and document. Her entire body of work is full of visual language. By moving from medium to medium she instills her subjects with meaning, playing with them, turning them into icons. She can later use these objects as a kind of visual vocabulary in her paint or graphic design work.

Virginia Power - Anne Bousquet.

A good example of this is her VA Power / Tree series. The huge gash made through the natural growth of trees works as both concept and design element. In “Brain Drain” Bousquet is playing with words and visual puns. Titles like, “Conform” and “25^th St. Revisited” hint at the personal meaning behind the photographs. Finally, in “Virginia Power” the shapes are distilled down to their simplest silhouettes and still retain their meaning.

Brain Drain - Anne Bousquet.

So, what are you trying to say?

This month I was looking at artists on one of my favorite new blogs, PeanutButterThoughts, and I came across the full stream of a movie called “PressPausePlay.” This movie comes out of a design company called House of Radon and was directed by David Dworsky and Victor Kohler. The film asks, now that artists have cheap and easy to get tools with which to produce and disseminate their work, will this democratization of arts and culture be good or bad for the arts as we make our way forward into the computer age?

This clip of “PressPausePlay” gives a rather grim forecast for what the art world will become:

But the film then moves on to a more optimistic view of how much power we, as artists, have when it comes to deciding what the cultural landscape will be. We are the designers. We are the painters, the sculptors, and the writers who can send messages out into the world about the way we think the world should work. We can offer up  new ways of looking at the world around us.

Sitting in art classes at Old Dominion University, students (including myself), were often still struggling with how to draw or paint or how to sculpt; we were still struggling with technique and how to make the object look the way we wanted. This led to lots of pictures of cats, lighthouses, or other mundane objects and, I think, left our professors a little flummoxed. As I moved out of fundamental classes into higher level art classes I kept running into teachers asking, “Isn’t there anything you want to say?”

Maybe because of this, purely decorative art leaves me cold. I can appreciate the technique and the time put into in the work, but then I forget about the piece entirely. Of course, that’s a personal bias. I love a strong narrative or concept versus a pretty object with no depth. I always feel more satisfied when I walk away knowing that I’ve understood a new idea, gleaned new information, or witnessed someone standing up for what they believe in. When we are talking about the power of the artist it is important that the artist actually has something to say. Even more important, is that the artist has something worth saying.

For more:

Anne Bousquet

David Johnson

“PressPausePlay”

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