The BLOB-(ish):

Uncertain times breed uncertain forms

Artist Reception: Friday, January 18, 6-9PM 
Artist Talk with Lauri Lynnxe Murphy: Saturday, February 2, 5:30pm
 
Curated by Donald Fodness.
With Mark Upson, Lindsay Pichaske, Bernardo Cantu, Yaloo Pop, Amber Farnell, Nicholas Hay, and Lauri Lynnxe Murphy.

Exhibition Dates: 10 January 2013–23 February 2013
VERTIGO Art Space   960 Santa Fe Drive   Denver, Co   80204
 

The Blob is an indeterminable form that references the unknown in nature and its outer limits as well as the known cultural realms of science fiction and campy horror. It seems to have emerged from the collective imagination in relatively recent human history. The “ish” keeps the blob even more non-committal. The artists in this show create from vastly different contexts, but this show unites them under seemingly simple formal connections in the realm of biomorphic forms and organic shapes.

It is not form alone that connects these artists; the process of allowing a work to emerge or unfold rather than adhere to a rigid blueprint is a binding agent. These pseudo-basic ties are meant to highlight the contextual differences in each independent artistic universe as well as point to a general trend towards artists appreciating and proceeding toward unknown/unpredictable ends in their making process.

Some historians suggest that the 1958 movie The Blob was a subconscious metaphor for anxieties surrounding the Cold War. In the late 1960’s and early 70’s artistic explorations in anti-form paralleled radical shifts in socio-political consciousness. The pairing of these artists asks “what ramifications could the emergent popularity of this form imply in our current zeitgeist?” Another possibility is that the collective interest in this form reflects a desire for unbound freedom as much as any anxiety; perhaps there is no rigid answer and its roots reach wide grounds.