“Waves of Meaning: Robert Stackhouse and Carol Mickett"
The Arts Center, St Petersburg, Florida.
January 18-February 23, 2008.
The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. It is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. (From the first of 6,250,000 entries on Google).
The Gulf of Mexico is a dominant feature for those of us who live on or near its coast. These ever changing waters are held in awe and apprehension; notably so during hurricane season. Unpredictable and terrifying storms, with gusty gales and tidal flooding, cause devastation and despair. The power of nature is a wonder to behold, as is its beauty. Sunsets are a tableau of color, clouds and contrast; the green flash is legendary. The sky is ever changing from clear blue with cumulus clouds, white and towering, to threatening storms, dark and angry. From calm seas to surging surf, waves move in relentless tides, low and high, day and night. The Gulf is a palette of many colors; with sky and water as the canvas, dramatically different: hour by hour, day by day, month by month, season after season. The unexpected is to be expected, as the Gulf is always moving, magnificent and majestic.
Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse felt their challenge was how to depict the Gulf of Mexico. After a flight to Houston, with views from the air of the waters below, they started a conversation on how to interpret that experience. Their choice was to develop a body of artwork dealing with the Gulf. Deliberation and discussion continued as they grappled with this problem; to be addressed through mutual collaboration.
Their conceptual process is one of constant give and take; learning from one another. As individuals, they approach the problem from different backgrounds. Carol Mickett is a long time professor of philosophy, with a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Minnesota, and has been a freelance producer, director, and writer who published numerous essays, poems and interviews. She was involved with filmmaking, theatre, poetry and the arts. Stackhouse is an artist, educated as a painter, who became a sculptor. Over the past forty years, Robert has gained national repute through his art; with many exhibitions and works in collections of major museums. A graduate of USF, he was presented with an honorary doctorate in 2006.
With the Arts Center, in a laudable act of institutional cooperation, two other art museums are presenting the work of Robert Stackhouse. The Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland features “Robert Stackhouse: Swimmers and Floaters”, a thirty year retrospective from the Belger Foundation. At USF Contemporary Art Museum is “Robert Stackhouse Editions Archive”, which also includes prints, made with Carol, and the sculpture Factor 24. That collaborative sculpture was shown in 2006 at Tampa Arts Alive. Through these current exhibitions, the unique opportunity exists to witness the development of an established artist, Stackhouse, and his emerging collaboration with Carol Mickett.
To welcome and commemorate 2008, Mickett and Stackhouse created a sculpture 24’ long. A wood frame in the shape of a hull, stretched over with fabric, was placed on wooden supports, the bow tilted skyward. Inside the hull were lights in wave like strands that shone thru the fabric, illuminating the sculpture from within. On New Years Eve, in the darkness of night, the boat like structure had an elegant simplicity yet commanding presence. The sculpture entitled Peace O’ Eight was part of St Petersburg’s downtown festivities. People were invited to write their New Year’s resolutions on the hull’s fabric, eventually covered with writing, resolutions overlapping. The sculpture took on another dimension with the lighting of torches and burning of the boat. The burnt fabric billowed upward in the wind, curling embers of orange and yellow against the black sky; with the skeletal frame burning and smoldering as the New Year began. The event worked on many levels; being a sculptural object, light sculpture, participatory event and pyrotechnic happening. Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse presented a memorable work and celebration for 2008.
The title Peace O’ Eight is full of meaning: the pirates’ pieces of eight; peace in our time; and this year, indeed, is ’08. The layering of meaning is also evident in The Waves of Meaning. The title represents many layers of meaning from the installation itself to the very act of collaboration. To collaborate means “to work with another; cooperate”. Collaboration is “a product resulting from collaboration; as in the product of many minds”. This exhibition of twelve works at the Arts Center, their most ambitious and largest collaboration so far, offers many meanings and insights.
For the sculpture, In the Blue, cooperation took on another aspect, involving many volunteers and staff from the Arts Center. To witness Carol and Bob working with this group, in the studio courtyard, gave an understanding of the dimension of collaborative effort involved in the work. 3000 pieces of cypress were hand-dipped in blue paint. The two artists worked with volunteers dipping and stacking the wood in a collective act; the process took several days and 35 gallons of paint to cover the wooden slats. The stained cypress was delivered to the gallery. Staff and volunteers, working eight hours a day, took nearly two weeks to complete the structure; their remarkable efforts, commitment and resilience that made possible this installation. The main structure that creates passage through the work is based on the A frame; evident throughout Bob’s creative career. The structure had to be attached, not to the floor but to the wall, spanning from one wall to the other.
In the Blue, a sculptural installation using 2,400 square feet of gallery space, is huge in every way, from concept to being. To view the work, one must walk completely into and through the space. The installation is divided into four distinct parts or quadrants, enclosed within gallery walls that, initially, may appear claustrophobic and chilling; yet encourage the curious visitor to enter. Carol and Bob feel that the work is both a passage through the Gulf and the collaborative process; the progression and changing sensations are described as: gentle; turbulent; calm; flow.
The initial impression of In the Blue is just that: blue. The color blue pervades the place, creating an eerie light of subterranean hue; an aqua mood of aesthetic ambience. The first room is Clacker, so named for the hanging wooden slats that hang down from the frame; creating tall, narrow enclosures. Move the slats and they swish and clack in gentle movements, reminiscent of the swishing seas. Crest is confrontational and antagonistic; threatening wood slats at all angles, thrusting forward, above and below, crashing over us; indeed turbulent. Calm is just that: a tranquil haven and open, simplistic and reassuring. Channel is an opening up, a passage through, wood slats creating an undulating flow. The journey is one of moving through, making a passage; the movement is of the individual not of water and waves. The structure is rigid and firm; thought is flexible and responsive. Lights illuminate the forms and linear slats; creating light and shadow, golden and blue. The somber silence and skeletal structure remain like an ocean frozen in some future apocalypse. The sense of containment within boundaries is like the Gulf, as are the different moods and constant change.
The series of four works titled Atlas in the Blue: Clacker/ Crest/ Calm/ Channel were made in preparation for the sculptural installation and address theoretical and structural issues. The drawings illustrate and define the different spaces and changing moods of the sculpture. Names of cities of the Gulf are integrated into the drawings, illuminating the concept and space. The watercolor Flow is at the opposite end of the galleries and complements the flux and movement of In the Blue. The wavy water like forms of the watercolor repeat the mood and color of the installation. Currency is a large spiral, in watercolor, charcoal, acrylic and ink that was originally titled Blue Current (Bay magazine December 2007). The work now has an overlay of lines representing longitude and latitude; names of coastal cities; and a loop of blue paint in the right hand corner that represents the Loop Current. The title Currency is another play on words. Whirl is the title for three drawings, small but powerful variations on the spiral. The watercolor, charcoal and ink works are gestural, silky, seductive renderings of turbulence and movement; again reminiscent of the movement and mood of the Gulf.
The painting Icondance may symbolize and, indeed, is an icon for their collaboration. The spiraling snake is one of Bob’s images while Carol’s fish represents her interest in the water. T/Here, another large painting of watercolor and ink is a rendering of the map of the Gulf of Mexico, including the Caribbean and Cuba. Their most recent work, finished on the morning of the preview, is regarded by the artists as most significant, with meaning on many levels. The work is both local and global and can refer to what happens over there, in Africa, where hurricanes originate. They had never used the color ultramarine and also liked the play on words; the exhibition is ultra marine?! Their collaboration takes each of them outside their comfort zone and challenges them to think anew. For them, T/Here holds great promise and potential. Carol and Bob are excited where this may lead; time will tell.
The title, Waves of Meaning, is not the only about their art but about their collaboration, marriage and life. Meanings exist on many levels. Definitions become critical in viewing this exhibition and collaboration. The definition of collaboration has been discussed earlier; let us address the word “meaning”, which is “the end, purpose or significance of something”. The word “wave” may be “a disturbance on the surface” and to make waves is “to disturb the status quo”. Certainly, Mickett and Stackhouse have achieved a disturbance of the status quo with their evolving collaboration and mutual endeavors. In so doing, they make us look again, with renewed interest and greater curiosity, at the Gulf of Mexico, a body of water that influences and shapes our daily lives.
Roy Slade
Clearwater, Florida.
January 2008.