"GAS-O-LINE", Wood.
Mark Cowardin
From the Ground Up
2-4 p.m.
(Opening reception; artist’s talk at 3 p.m.)
Epsten Gallery at Village Shalom
5500 W. 123rd Street
Leawood, KS
913.266.8413
Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m Tuesday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Runs through: Jan. 3
Artist’s site: http://www.markcowardin.com
Gallery site: http://www.villageshalom.org
Occasionally, I find myself at a loss for someone else’s words — Mark Cowardin’s, in this case.
I went searching for a statement to go along with From the Ground Up, Cowardin’s solo show at the Epsten Gallery. No luck. There’s a statement from the gallery, but it’s written in Artspeak. (The key passage, though, refers to a new body of work that defines the home as a specifically un-built environment.
Further digging brought up Cowardin’s words from earlier this decade, however, and from what I’ve seen of this show — which opens today with a reception from 2-4 p.m. — his views haven’t changed much:
My works are meditations on isolation and separation, he wrote then. I believe man’s concern and respect for life lessens as humankind increasingly moves away from nature. Growing development and technology create barriers between humans and the natural world, and also between humans and other humans. These barriers contribute to a disturbing loss of community, and a loss of respect for the natural world.
Cowardin’s work at the Epsten more than hints at that disconnect and disrespect. GAS-O-LINE, the wooden sculpture pictured atop this post, might seem absurd at first. Who puts gas in wooden containers, after all? But the piece also has serious points to make about overconsumption of trees and fossil fuels — ways in which humanity burns down its own house, so to speak.
And speaking of speaking, and chances to hear artists discuss their works in their own words, Cowardin will give an informal talk at 3 p.m. (and I’m betting it won’t be in Artspeak).
