PAST EXHIBITION

A MORATORIUM ON MAKE-BELIEVE

Carnegie Mellon 2008 MFA Thesis Exhibition

March 21 – April 20, 2008

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

March 21, Fri. 6-8pm:
Reception

March 26, Fri. 6:30-8pm:
Grand Tour

About the Exhibition

What is the restlessness that took us in sailing ships across fathomless oceans? I see that quality in this group. Their unrest moves and motivates them to explore new ideas, new places in the mind, and new possibilities for art.

Their practices are diverse, varying from orchestrated spectacles to understated ephemera, from split personalities to discreet objects, and from informal economies to invented mythologies. What links them, however, is a serious playfulness. Unwilling to settle, they thrive in an open-ended practice. The exploration, experiment and inquiry is as important as any resulting artifacts.

Chris Beauregard offers unhurried glimpses of a parallel world where everything is slightly and worryingly off kilter. These worlds are fantastic, hinting at a happier place than what we call reality.

In her videos Michelle Fried creates scenarios, which alternate between cuteness and grotesquery. In her affectedly constructed sets, ill behaved characters become disturbingly unhinged.

With the help of friends and strangers, Ben Kinsley stages mischievous and humorous performances. By entering his world, you find yourself in the power of a manipulative, but likeable puppet master, toying on the edge of anarchy.

Eileen Maxson inhabits televised worlds as various personas, each with something to say and something to hide. Through video and installation, she subversively examines how we are all in thrall to a mediated version of reality.

John Peña is bewitched by the poetry of wandering clouds and aimless letters to the ocean. He transforms the experience of the everyday through ephemeral and humane gestures.

Ally Reeves has generosity, collaboration and accessibility at the heart of her practice. Always mobile, she pedals, pushes, and scavenges for the benefit of all and sundry. I feel privileged to have shared some time along the road with these people. They will all go far and I wish them well on their journeys.

- John Carson
  Head of the School of Art + Regina and Marlin Miller Professor,
  Carnegie Mellon University