First Friday has become an RVA institution over the past decade-plus. But what’s actually going on down there in the arts district these days? RVA Mag contributor Calyssa Kremer checked out the action on September 5, and brings us a report from the field.
First Friday has become an RVA institution over the past decade-plus. But what’s actually going on down there in the arts district these days? RVA Mag contributor Calyssa Kremer checked out the action on September 5, and brings us a report from the field.
The first thing that struck me about this First Friday was how packed it was. A massive crowd wove its way down Broad St. Every alley was jammed with people and the galleries themselves were like human blenders. Maybe it was just the influx of VCU students re-entering the city, or maybe it was because the weather was finally something other than unbearably hot and humid. Whatever the reason, everyone in Richmond seemed to be congregated on one street.
A few blocks before reaching the main stretch of galleries, pounding bass could be heard. It seemed like every few hundred feet there was a mass of people gathered around some sort of band or sound system. The one that stood out immediately was in front of Metro Sound. A big crowd was gathered around them as they played a mix of jazzy Motown. It seemed like we were transported back to the 40s until a man in seven-inch neon lit heels traipsed through. Illusion shattered.
After a few galleries, I ended up in Candela. On taking the first step into the gallery, you cannot avoid looking straight at Girl by Christa Blackwood. It grabs your attention as soon as you enter the gallery. In the piece, a girl is contained within a large red circle with a white grid superimposed over her. At first it catches the attention because of the striking color, red against stark white, but the viewer is held there by the layering of geometric forms combined with the organic form of the figure.
Looking for more work like Girl, I walked further into the gallery, only to find an array of different photographic work more traditional in nature. However, these traditional photographic techniques are interrupted by a single red dot within each composition. Though the other pieces were not similar to Girl (most of them were monochrome sepia landscapes with high contrast) they were all incredibly beautiful and intriguing.
Blackwood’s show, “A Red Dot,” is a series of work is based on inserting a contemporary feminist voice into an art form previously dominated by male narrative: traditional photography. Her work reflects on and interrupts the concept of the “male gaze,” taking landscapes traditionally photographed by men and interrupting it with the feminine metaphor of the red dot. Blackwood uses photogravure and wet collodion tintype processes to experiment with historic and modern photographic techniques, sparking a new dialogue about the medium and its traditional uses.
If you didn’t happen to stop by Candela, there is still time to see Blackwood’s work. The show closes on October 18.
The other artist exhibiting in Candela was Andy Mattern, with a show entitled “Standard Size.” Mattern organizes object and tools typically found in a photographer’s studio and then photographically documents them, creating a completely new surface. Before photographing the materials, he typically alters the surfaces of the tools, covering logos with masking tape or sanding them off completely. In this way, he liberates the object from being those specific to the practice of photography until they posses an enigmatic quality.
After being blown away at Candela, I thought it would be difficult for anything to rival. However, navigating through the increasingly overflowing streets to get to 1708 Gallery was well worth the amount of elbowing that took place.
1708 was a refreshing break from other galleries that were packed with people. Though it was less populous, the pieces were all incredibly engaging and each a bit comedic in their own way. Walking into the gallery and immediately being confronted with Sharon Madanes’s Mr. Locks was a great introduction into the driving force behind the show: a critique on painting addressing its long history, clichés, and dynamics with the viewer. Mr. Locks portrays a window display, which includes rounded mirrors at eye level with the viewer, a nod to the surveillance we are subjected to daily as well as the egotism of the viewer. It critiques the way in which traditional painting deals so overtly with the viewer while not actually including them. Allowing the viewers the ability to literally see themselves within a piece so based around the viewer created a lovely dialogue between observer, medium, and artist.
The other five artists in the show each dealt with addressing the history of painting a bit differently. Some explored points of entry and exit from the canvas as a means of illustrating its rigid structure, while some chose to deal less with the physicality of the canvas and more with the concepts and issues and choosing to be more critical of the medium.
The whole show was a playful take on the pretensions that can occur so often in painting. Not only was the gallery space itself a pleasant respite from the chaotic street, but the work itself was a playful take on something that could easily turn stuffy or pretentious.
On the way to Quirk Gallery, we ran into part of a mysterious LOVE sign that will apparently be on display somewhere around town in the future (details are scarce at this point). The gigantic “O” was surrounded by people scribbling over it with bright red paint markers. The entire thing was covered by signatures, caricatures, and tags authored by everyone who passed by.
All in all, September’s First Friday was hectic but well worth the occasional fight through the exceptionally dense crowd.
