Defect[ed]
Olive, Walla Walla, WA
September 12 - November 1, 2014
Defect[ed] is a two person exhibition featuring Rachel Smith and Juventino Aranda exploring what it means to defect or be defective. To defect or to be defective, regardless of the context carry negative connotations of inadequacy, imperfection and rejection. The works in Defect[ed] layers political connotations and personal sentiment of what it means to be a defected person. Aranda and Smith use blankets as a symbol representing edges, borders and the blending of cultures. Both artists use Pendleton blankets as an icon of the Pacific Northwest where they reside as well as a means to examine their cultural pasts surrounding defecting and immigration from Cuba and Mexico.
Smith’s pieces are created using limited colors and shapes to create high contrast minimalist forms that produce edges and lines that while fixed are full of irregularities and movement. Through this she visually articulates the idea that while borders seem static and controlled they are fluid, temporary and always in a state of change. She abstractly uses the color theory principle of mixing black and white to make gray to reference the idea that most everything lies within gray areas which obscure obvious answers, outcomes and understandings.
Aranda’s pieces use large intact Pendleton blankets as canvas. Pendleton has created fine and beautiful products for many generations. The National Parks represented in this series conjure visions of serene and magnificent landscapes of the United States of America. Yet under this blanket of beauty rests histories surrounding western expansion, war and colonization on land that once lay within the country of Mexico. Questioning these perceptions of truth could consider one a defector. However Aranda finds that life in a first world creates a defective society unable to live any other way.
