Unpacking larger complexities of fascist ideologies lies ahead in the Southwest German forest Andrea Geyer creates in plein-air. The multimedia experience combines text, photography, and video. never yet (2023), her slowly panning video installation, inspired by the German forests of her childhood, creates a perspective as if we were standing among the large forest trees. The projects establish a calmness mixed with an unsettling feeling that a darker truth looms ahead. The accompanying voiceover of Geyer’s experience as a queer teenager growing up, juxtaposed with her mother’s history during WWII, adds a rich layer to the installation. In the adjacent collage of print and online news stories, plein-air (2023) builds on the connection between Geyer’s personal history with those of political issues, such as facism and the patriarchy. She uses the past to reframe the present, with the news articles alluding to the exploitation of nature, and suggesting doing so will impact our future and our environment’s as well. The works on view seem to be referring to when the forest had been exploited by white supremacists to justify constructs of Social Darwinism and binary gender norms. She questions the role of today’s social construct, capitalism and facism in U.S. culture and everyday life. With an extended visit, viewers can begin to completely understand the impact of these political and social ideologies.
- Rose
I like your comment about how the atmosphere in the room changes depending on where you are putting more of your attention. It's interesting to think of how when you walk into the space, you are placed in the woods, that act as an escape from reality, but as you spend more time in the space the viewer is fully confronted with the state of the world through the news articles.
ReplyDeleteYou gave an excellent description of the space and it's contents. I'm glad you included both the physical and emotional ways of digesting this installation. There were lots of nuances to unpack in this exhibit that you took the time to address-this helps the reader understand the work their viewing from different levels.
ReplyDeleteThe personal history of the artist is important to know in exhibits like this. The information you provide shows that you observed and understood the text (the artist statement) with as much care as you did the image (the installation), and its good that you encouraged the reader to do the same.
I think your first sentence is a great opener for the review. It might also be nice to switch the structure of it and put “in the German forest Andrea Geyer creates in plein-air” at the start followed by “Larger complexities of fascist ideologies lie ahead” to help the reader immediately know what you are writing about. Your second sentence could maybe have a little more meat to describe what the result of the multimedia experience is. Sentence four could use some clarification about “mother’s”... mother’s what? Besides that, great job expanded on the exhibition and intention or lack thereof.
ReplyDelete