Mélange takes the Arts Center
Exhibit mixes the work of three local artists

Jenny Treanor’s “She Spreads her Wings to Fly,” now on display at the DAC/Photo by Stephen Eginoire

by Jules Masterjohn

There is only one day left to catch the current exhibition at the Durango Arts Center. Titled, Mélange, the show is a mix of work by three local artists that does not easily blend into a cohesive whole – and that is the show’s strength. Comprised of found object sculptures by Patti Singer and Jenny Treanor, and altered photographs by Jodell Murray, the show is a medley of artistic approaches, styles and intentions.

Art can ask a lot of the viewer and one needs to decide if it is worth the effort. It took me nearly half an hour to get comfortable with this show and to exorcize my artistic prejudices and preferences. Initially, I was bothered by the sameness in texture of the artists’ work – Murray’s prints are all pixilated; Treanor’s sculptures are rusty or shiny; and Singer’s once-wooly stuffed animals are all grungy. The surface qualities within each artist’s body of work seem so alike that my eye and mind hungered for some variety and contrast. Seeing past this superficial reaction, I was able to dig deeper into the works, and began to appreciate the merit of each person’s investigation.

Jenny Treanor and Patti Singer share few artistic attributes, though both use found objects combined in unexpected ways. Treanor is interested in using the objects as she finds them – unaltered. Contrastingly, Singer deconstructs and reassembles the dolls and stuffed animals that are the actors in her mixed-media sculptures. Where Treanor nests her objects, rarely securing or fixing them permanently, Singer sews, glues and binds hers together. While Treanor’s themes are one-of-a-kind and unique, Singer repeatedly uses the rabbit, baby doll, fox and wolf as archetypes to express her meanings. Treanor seems intent on formal issues and objectivity in her work while Singer pulls us into her specific dramas, asking us to consider the darker aspects of humanity.

Treanor creates found-object sculptures using items that she rescues from the trash or purchases from flea markets, with the intention of capturing “the essence of these elements to reveal something new.” A few of her pieces point to the sublime and reach her artistic goal of creating the “unexpected message.”

One assemblage, “She flies through the air with the greatest of ease,” which greets viewers at the gallery door, demonstrates Treanor’s ability to break out of her visual convention. A silver tray, a truck’s hood ornament, a doll head, and a shiny tool are combined in an odd and delightful way. The viewer’s point of view is engaged as the doll’s head is reflected from different facets of the silver tray, which serves as the sculpture’s background.

“She flies…” finds congruity with her statement, “I allow my intuition to join seemingly disparate items. I see form rather than function.” In her most compelling works, Treanor transforms the combined objects into expressions that offer a glimpse into the substance of the mind that Dada and Surrealism, the roots of found object sculpture, can provoke.

Patti Singer's “Rabbit in the Hat.”/ Photo by Stephen Eginoire

Patti Singer’s wall piece, “Snare” punched me in the gut the moment I saw it. The image of a fox skin clad with a human phallus, hanging from a rabbit-shaped weathervane, has been haunting. Once a stuffed toy, now disemboweled and lifelessly draped from its nemesis, the piece presents a story of the tables turned. This anthropomorphic tale is a warning and foreshadows the fate of one who is too clever and overly full of oneself. Assumptions about the victim and the hero as well as other human dramas are symbolically explored in Singer’s work. Humor and horror set the tone for her “vignettes."

Three other mixed-media dolls by Singer have hovered in my periphery vision since viewing the show. “Afterlife” is comprised of a dismembered and reassembled rabbit (with an unlucky foot pitifully dangling) that holds an angelic baby doll. “Spring,” a drenched and slumping bunny that is tied to a chair, tenderly offers a dove a resting place. By far the darkest of her pieces is “Empty Nest,” in which a baby doll body with a bird’s nest upon its head has been covered with black horsehair. Three of four appendages end in paws that sport actual animal claws. A nearly transformed werewolf comes to mind as the solo human arm grasps a baby wearing a rabbit suit.

As in most of her sculptures, “Empty Nest” is slathered with a medium that makes the surfaces look viscous and sticky. This treatment suggests amniotic fluid, and each sculpture takes on the symbolism of a stillborn issue or nascent trauma. Her doll forms are intended as carriers for the “many childhood associations we have with the rabbit as toys, fairytales and stories.” Too, using the doll as her expressive vehicle amplifies the impact of these images. The sculptures are pregnant with meaning and covered with the gory details.

Singer’s dolls are anything but playthings. They offer serious contemplation of the complacencies in our lives, and remind us that exploring unresolved psychological and emotional issues is hardly ever pretty. •

Mélange is on display at the Durango Arts Center, 802 E. Second Ave., through Friday, July 31.