David Kimball Anderson: Sobriety Test
Statement
The hallmark of a sobriety test is that one must walk in a straight line. In my studio activity I do not. The exhibition Sobriety Test is comprised of four bodies of work: New Physics; The Fragrance Bottle; Medieval Shit; and The Decorative Strategy.
New Physics- I asked an astrophysicist friend, Dr. Joey Key, PhD, to share images that represent her visceral sensations consequent of her research in ‘deep space’. Specifically awe and pleasure. I anticipated receiving dramatic color photographs from the James Webb Space Telescope and like-utilities. I was surprised, and grateful, to receive graphs, equations, charts and notes documenting merging black holes. These were vivid examples of her passion, observing merging black holes and their reveal of gravitational waves.
The Fragrance Bottle- Hillary Metz owned a well-respected art gallery in Los Angeles. After more than a decade of study with a Peruvian teacher in the field of therapeutic soul retrieval, she closed her gallery and began a professional practice in Arizona in the service of helping others achieve personal strength and peace. I consider Hillary to be advanced in the realm of spiritual health. Last year she sent a photograph of herself shooting her Glock 9 in an indoor firing range. Perhaps a seemingly contrary image given her transcendental sensibilities. But I know Hillary. She can shoot better than any armed man or woman in the Southwest. I was struck by the abstract form on the target in the photo. It did not seem to represent a human body. Upon questioning, she informed me that she never uses targets that represent people. To me, the form on the target looked very much like a fragrance bottle. I am intrigued by her boldness and her strength of self-protection while I am swept away with the possibilities of a lush feminine fragrance.
Medieval Shit- Shakespeare. Wood. Mud. Witches. Spells. My friend and fellow artist Erika Wanenmacher, in addition to her art work, creates forces that manifest changes in the societal atmosphere as well as inside our bodies. She is a spell maker. She makes incense for various uses: to open roads; cleanse; love; and personal growth. The little lantern on the title piece Medieval Shit, was made by Erika specifically for the piece.
The Decorative Strategy- A quote by curator Helen Molesworth from (Nothing but) Flowers: “The artist Lari Pittman once told me that the decorative is a way of managing the great barbarity of the world, a means to keep the radical contingency and cruel unknowability of what is going to happen next at bay. This means that the decorative is a strategy against violence, and in that regard it’s no mistake that the decorative has long been the province of the historically disenfranchised- women, servants, queers- charged with the tasks of keeping house and maintaining culture.”