Risky business Visual art’s a great gamble this fall BY CHRIS THOMPSON

In her essay "Cotton and Iron," filmmaker, critic, and theorist Trinh Minh-ha proposes that we think of artistic practice as an inherently risky endeavor, one whose nature is to unsettle our way of being in the world in order to open us up to new and more challenging ones.

"A creative event does not grasp," she says, "it does not take possession, it is an excursion. More often than not, it requires that one leaves the realms of the known, and takes oneself there where one does not expect, is not expected to be."

Any creative practice conceived in these terms operates without a blueprint, creating a map for itself as it proceeds. "There is no prescriptive procedure to be applied mechanically (the formula-solutions professionals proudly come up with when questions are raised); no recipes to follow (a ‘successful’ work is always a crucial test for the creating subject, for there could be no following without change and without risk); and no model to emulate . . ."

On one hand, we could think of a kind of romanticism that waits for us in such a wish to create a set of working conditions in which there are no recipes, no models, no expectations, nothing but the excursion and its risks. On the other hand, at the end of the day it is precisely this ability to open oneself to change and risk that gives any practice, in any field, its allure, its charge, and invests it with whatever transformative power it could be said to have.

In her book Love’s Work, written near the end of her life, which was cut short by cancer, philosopher Gillian Rose concluded her autobiographical meditations with the following promise, made as much to herself as to readers: "I will stay in the fray, in the revel of ideas and risk; learning, failing, wooing, grieving, trusting, working, reposing — in this sin of language and lips." Here’s a short list of a few shows this fall that keep this revelry unfolding.

"Pushing Envelopes: The Mail Art of Carlo Pittore" (June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland): This Thursday is the opening for an impromptu exhibition of the mail art of one of that medium’s pioneers, Maine artist Carlo Pittore. Recently diagnosed with cancer, Pittore has begun a healing regime to prepare himself for the Lance-Armstrong-style recovery that awaits him. In an interview with Ruud Janssen from a few years ago, Pittore spoke about his investments in precisely the sorts of risks that Rose described:

"I always laugh when I tell people that there are only three aspects of life that interest me: love, art, and food, and I think that order is generally correct, although food goes to first place a couple of times a day, and love has very indefinite borders. Mail — the nature of my mail is sometimes very thrilling, especially if it incorporates love. I am always turned on to a handwritten note, or a lengthy letter, or something decidedly original, or specifically heartfelt, but much in the mail has become, understandably, cold, printed, mass-produced . . . alas. I always appreciate artistic brilliance — even if mass-produced or xeroxed, but ‘artistic brilliance’ [is] an ideal, and since I often fall short of it, I’m not in any position to lament its demise in others. One reads in mail-art circles how a mail artist is so isolated and alone, except for the network, and I understand this, and have felt this, but I am making a concerted effort to relate better with my local community. I think this is more important, rather than less important. Mail is a vehicle for communication. [B]ut also, perhaps, of NON-involvement, of selective involvement, of partial disguise . . ."

His exhibition at June Fitzpatrick Gallery on High Street offers a rare opportunity to see the contents of Pittore’s personal archive — original collages and drawings, books and postcards — and to meet this artist who has had such an impact upon the mail-art genre and upon the arts community in Maine. The show runs through September 25, with a reception Thursday, September 16 from 5 to 7 p.m.

From November 5 through 27, at the High Street and Congress Street galleries, June Fitzpatrick hosts "NAKED," a group show of works on paper by artists from Maine and New York curated by artist Kathy Bradford. In her words, this show "goes far beyond figure drawing to explore the various interpretations of naked. As in vulnerable, raw, exposed, stripped. Even a landscape will be naked."

And building upon the potentials of nakedness and nudity, from December 3 through 18, Fitzpatrick’s Congress Street gallery hosts "Sensuous Matter," a show of works of body ornamentation by a variety of nationally renowned metalsmiths, curated by Sharon Portelance and Tina Rath.

Lawrence Goldsmith (Portland Museum of Art): The museum had three solo exhibitions over the last year celebrating Maine artists. This is the last, running now through November 7. Goldsmith passed away in March of this year, but his distinctive style will find posterity with the recently published Lawrence C. Goldsmith: A Life in Color. As for risk-taking, Goldsmith is quoted as saying, "I take chances and invite the risk of wasting time and paper. By doing so I sometimes get a real reward." So might you.

Amy Stacey Curtis, "CHANGE" (Fort Andross, Brunswick): One of a number of a younger generation of artists whose lives and work have been touched and informed by Pittore’s presence, Amy Stacey Curtis’s work consists of an ongoing series of ambitious, large-scale interactive installations she calls "solo-biennials." Each one deals with a different mode of engagement with the world. The first solo-biennial, held in 2000 at the Bates Mill in Lewiston, "explored chaos, order, and repetition with a focus on EXPERIENCE," Curtis explains. "In 2002, at the Old Sebago Shoe Mill in Westbrook, the installation focused on MOVEMENT."

October 2004 will see the opening of the third in the series, entitled "CHANGE." This will be at Fort Andross in Brunswick from October 9 through 27. 2006’s solo-biennial will be about SOUND, 2008’s about LIGHT, and 2010’s about TIME.

"The connection between the concepts I work with and the audience members who experience the work ultimately completes the process," Curtis says. "Once the installations are disassembled, they remain only through documentation, dialogue, and memory." Each one of her solo-biennials is the result of a two-year process of conceiving, producing, raising money, securing a site, working collaboratively with assistants and engineers to create and install the work, presenting it, and finally documenting it.

Curtis describes "Modulation I," one of the nine installations that constitute "CHANGE," as "a 13-foot round form made up of 2304 upright tin cans, compactly and meticulously arranged on the floor. Placed around the inside of each can is horizontal spectrum of color. Audience is instructed to walk around the piece while observing its hue collectively ‘changing’ from red to yellow to green to blue to violet to red."

Prospective audience members are invited to "Bring a small personal possession with which you are ready to part forever. Enter/participate at own risk. Not appropriate for small children." For directions and information, visit www.amystaceycurtis.com.

"Un/Coverings: Contemporary Maine Fiber Art" (Farnsworth Museum, Rockland): Opening on September 19, with a reception on October 9, and running through February 20, 2005, this exhibition of works by 12 artists (Katharine Cobey, Catharine Draper, Emily Freeman, Richard Lee, Susan Barrett Merrill, Jeannie Mooney, Arlene Morris, Anne Nemrow, Margaret Schwarcz, Donald Talbot, Patricia Wheeler, and Susan Winn) explores "ways in which fiber can both protect, conceal, and reveal the physical and spiritual self," and seeks to present alternatives to "conventional ideas about fabric as functional craft."

"Original Comic Art" (Map Room, Portland): For one week, from October 23 through 31, the Map Room presents this traveling exhibition of work by cartoonists in the collection of the Center for Cartoon Studies, including original panels for a range of comic books and graphic novels. Contact www.themaproom.org for more information.

"Alan Bull: Recent Paintings" (Whitney Art Works, Portland): from October 28 through November 23, Portland’s second newest art gallery shows a range of recent painting by this important Maine artist.

Photo-a-go-go: Bpic’s annual auction (Bakery Photo Collective, Portland): First Friday, December 3. Nothing else like it.

Chris Thompson helped curate the Carlo Pittore exhibition (with Adriane Herman, Gwen Allen, Alison Baird, and Martha Miller). He can be reached at xxtopher@hotmail.com