NO IDEAS BUT IN THINGS

Richard Turner

SEPTEMBER 12 — NOVEMBER 19, 2022

Richard Turner, former professor and director of the Guggenheim Gallery, returns to Chapman to present No Ideas but in Things, an art exhibition that both reprises and advances his lifelong career. Turner will transform the gallery space into an ever-changing environment assembled of objects and furniture from his studio and home, alongside existing artworks that are newly configured and contextualized. With ongoing efforts by the artist, gallery team, and participation of Chapman students, different elements of the exhibition will undergo changes on a daily basis, rendering in material the infinite possibilities of expression of the artistic impulse. As we excitedly await the opening of No Ideas but in Things, Richard Turner offers us further insight into his upcoming show:

How have your experiences as an educator and gallery director influenced your artwork throughout your career?

Having a steady job, obviously, allowed me to pursue my interests without having to think about the marketability of my art. The peace of mind that comes from not having to worry about where your next dollar is coming from was essential to my productivity in the studio.

Using the work of Salvador Dali or Joseph Albers and other artists in conjunction with projects for my design class, I developed an interest in and respect for these artists that I don’t know if I otherwise would have acquired. At times, the students themselves introduced me to artists with whom I was unfamiliar. Students’ questions also brought fresh perspectives to artists whose work had been with me since my own college days. Talking with my students about the work of other artists often enhanced my understanding of what these artists were trying to express in a particular sculpture or a photograph. Ironically, one of the gifts of retirement from teaching was thinking to myself “when I go to museums now, I don’t have to explain anything to anyone except myself.”

No Ideas but in Things involves the participation of numerous people. What is the significance of the exhibition being collaborative in nature?

Successful collaboration, in my experience, has always been an exercise in letting go of one’s ego. Good ideas can come from anyone at any time. Being open to the give-and-take of a collaboration can often move a project or an idea along more rapidly than a single person working alone can. You saw what happened when the group of us first got together to discuss the exhibition. Two great ideas, one for a new piece in the show and a second for publicizing the exhibition on campus came out of that single short session.

I did some of my best teaching in the last ten years of my career at Chapman. And that was largely due to the realization that engaging my students in the teaching process made for a more productive and dynamic classroom experience. In studio classes my students took over the job of critiquing each other’s work. In art history classes they researched and presented a significant portion of the material. In both cases my role was simply to add commentary when I thought something might have been overlooked. I only wish that I had begun collaborating like this with my students a decade earlier.

In what ways can Chapman students participate in the exhibition?

How students might participate in this exhibition remains to be seen. It will depend on what ideas you bring to the table, and what we can develop together. Surely there are opportunities for participation that are beyond the artist reception and gallery talks.

What do you hope that students will take away from visiting No Ideas but in Things?

I would hope that students visiting No Ideas but in Things would get some sense of the interconnectedness of all things — not simply within the gallery space, but throughout the world, their world. The daily evolution of several pieces in the exhibition might serve to remind them, as well, that all life is change, that things are beginning and ending moment by moment.

What advice do you have for the budding artists in the Chapman community?

A line from Bob Dylan’s song “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” is my advice: “Take what you have gathered from coincidence.” Be open to the gift of random events in your life and incorporate that awareness into your practice as an artist.

ALCHEMY

JUNIOR STUDIO ART EXHIBITION

Chelsea Farinaro & Eugene Kim  

Please join us for the artist reception on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 from 5:00-7:00PM

Historically, alchemy is a practice using chemistry and philosophy to convert base metals, like lead, into gold. However, the Guggenheim Gallery's first exhibition of the Fall 2022 semester, presents a different form of alchemy; one that metamorphizes several traditional and influential works of art into something new. Chelsea Farinaro and Eugene Kim present Alchemy, two bodies of work that draw inspiration from other art and alchemizing it into a more personal perspective. 

Chelsea Farinaro pushes forth the idea that art imitates other art. Her sculpture, installation, and 2D work dances between the lines of inspiration and forgery, while blurring it in the process. Her art takes new form from important artwork like da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Louise Bourgeois' Ex Libris. Farinaro's body of work alters the corresponding aesthetic and medium, but leaves the original concepts untouched, riding in that borderless grey area. She unreservedly challenges the idea that life imitates art and the opposite, to yield to the idea that a concept is not limited to one medium or artist. In time, the same art that inspired Farinaro's pieces will be used as an inspiration elsewhere, continuing its lineage of art imitating art. 

Eugene Kim continues his study and work in the realm of magical girls, a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media where young girls transform to save the world from evil forces, and pulls direct influence from the children's franchise, Pretty Cure. Included, are 16 digital collages for every season of Pretty Cure from 2004 to 2021, and a silent video showcasing every piece of official merchandise released for the franchise in the same timeframe. Kim not only touches on the reality that this children's show solely made as a source of merchandising, but also how the life of a magical girl may be more difficult than what is shown on screen. The deconstruction of the genre is a prominent theme in his work and this colorfully explosive body of work is no different, because behind the image that magical girls uphold, is still a normal young girl.