{"id":653,"date":"2009-12-08T21:16:58","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T05:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=653"},"modified":"2010-12-23T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T17:03:47","slug":"chris-kanyusiks-savage-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/08\/chris-kanyusiks-savage-planet-653\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Kanyusik’s Savage Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chris Kanyusik, "Head on Base (Pressed)," Earthenware, Encoustic Wax, 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

This past weekend I attended the 4th Annual Jingletown Holiday ArtWalk in Oakland, CA. I never miss events there due to the high concentration of studios and artists I know and admire,\u00a0including the likes of Jan Watten<\/a> and Clint Imboden<\/a>, who I have mentioned in previous blogs and newsletters. But every time I go to Jingletown I discover a new gem. The Institute of Mosaic Art<\/a>. The scanned foliage of Jon Zax. And especially, this time, the sculpture of Chris Kanyusik<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His studio is tucked away at 2934 Ford Street #39, and it would have been so easy to overlook. But as you approach you find a hallway lined with altered images of the Mona Lisa, and arrows guiding the way. It’s like the Paris Metro stop transporting you to the Louvre. Or\u00a0a wormhole that sucks you in and deposits you at Bergamot Station at\u00a0the center of the Los Angeles art scene.<\/p>\n

Sculpture feels like the most static of all artforms. The piece is literally “set in stone.” Or\u00a0wax, or plaster, or…. Well, you get my point. Yet Kanyusik’s sculpture feels completely dynamic. Rodin’s Thinker took a comfortable seat, a position he has maintained for 120 years and counting. Not so Kanyusik’s subjects. His have just been rocked off the center of their base and crashed face-first into the invisible boundary at which\u00a0their world ends. Their necks have been snapped and their heads loll. They are captured at a moment of maximum tension. How long can they hold that pose?<\/p>\n

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Han Solo, "The Empire Strikes Back," 1980<\/p><\/div>\n

“Captured” is an apt description for Kanyusik’s subjects. Those not being crushed or cracked are trapped in their material. A face — perhaps only ears–protrudes from the block. Or they are nearly free, yet conjoined. They\u00a0recall the revulsion and\u00a0horror\u00a0of\u00a0seeing Han Solo entombed in a block of\u00a0carbonite<\/a>, and watching the credits roll with our hero still trapped. Is Kanyusik freeing them from the marble as Michaelangelo did, or has he made them his captives?<\/p>\n

\"fan_planet\"Kanyusik’s sculptures remind me\u00a0first and foremost of\u00a0animation, specifically the work of Bill Plympton<\/a> and the 1973 French-Czech cult classic Fantastic Planet<\/a>\u00a0(La plan\u00e8te sauvage). Like “Plymptoons,” the characters are in flux. They rotate, mutate, and evolve. They look like us, in a decidedly unidealized rendering, but they are not us. They have an alien quality. They are the\u00a0Draags inhabiting the\u00a0Fantastic Planet: Humanoid, but no human could survive the abuses to which they are subjected.<\/p>\n

Kanyusik gives his subjects a cruel choice: Remain trapped in a claustrophobic prison, or face the vulnerability inherent in\u00a0being free. Yet despite being unnerved by\u00a0these pieces, they inspire sheer delight. Is it the subtle references to those cherished bits of pop cultural heritage? The cleverness of the poses? Or perhaps it is because<\/em> they are so unnerving. God forbid, is it a bit of schadenfreude<\/em>? Better them than me?<\/p>\n

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Chris Kanyusik, "Female Torso (Bent Neck)," Earthenware, 2008<\/p><\/div>\n

Many of his pieces have an unfinished feel to them, and this is by design, as is the artist’s ambiguous relationship to his subjects and concern for their fate. Kanyusik writes in his statement, “Art bears greater power and relevance through ambiguity.\u00a0 It transcends commonality by remaining open, provocative, and to a certain degree unclear and unfinished, rather than presenting a banal package complete with an image and a corresponding narrative, leaving little or no room for viewer engagement.”<\/p>\n

I’ll risk superficiality to admit that one element contributing to the pleasure of viewing Kanyusik’s work was the overall presentation.\u00a0This was open studios, but he didn’t just put out snacks (In fact, he didn’t put out snacks at all. Note to Chris: Next time? Snacks.);\u00a0He curated his show. He took his working studio and transformed it into a gallery.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0599\"<\/p>\n

There is one weekend left to see Kanyusik’s studio in its transformed state. The Jingletown ArtWalk\u00a0concludes Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, from 11-6 PM.<\/p>\n

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Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend I attended the 4th Annual Jingletown Holiday ArtWalk in Oakland, CA. I never miss events there due to the high concentration of studios and artists I know and admire,\u00a0including the likes of Jan Watten and Clint Imboden, who I have mentioned in previous blogs and newsletters. But every time I go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6,4],"tags":[238,65,27,63,64],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-events","category-raves","tag-chris-kanyusik","tag-clint-imboden","tag-jan-watten","tag-jingletown","tag-oakland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-ax","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}