THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409170036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Art review
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
THE LEGEND of the artist struggling solo in his or her studio is losing its hold. Collaborations are popping up all over the place.
A four-artist collective called TODT created an installation on view this summer at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. In June, a jewelry-making duo - Robin Kranitzky and Kim Overstreet of Richmond - won best-in-show at the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show.
The latest team under local gallery lights is Susan Dy and James Bezek, whose installation ``Convergence'' is on view at Calvin & Lloyd, a new gallery/frame shop/ interior design firm in downtown Norfolk.
These young, emerging artists have different frames of reference: Dy is schooled in fine art photography, and Bezek is trained as an architect.
One of Dy's major influences is a twosome - Mike and Doug Starn, 33-year-old identical twins. The Starn brothers work sculpturally using photographs, often with transparent materials.
Dy's and Bezek's work - in this instance, a single, site-specific piece - could be described similarly. The work has a cool, intellectual attitude - stylish and sophisticated.
They write: ``The work is an ephemeral definition of space and images which strive to push the boundaries of context. The meaning is created by the viewer whose perception of the work enables a connection that defines the images and their relationship to one another in space.''
The core of the work is a delicate, open-air temple of unfinished lumber held together with exposed fasteners. The structure is just big enough to wander around in. An opening is centered in each wall, presumably acknowledging the four elements, a contained world.
Inked impressions of photographs are attached to these walls. The images were printed onto long sheets of translucent plastic or on Plexiglas.
Photocopies of Dy's photographs cover the floor in an orderly strewn fashion. Some of the images were photocopied numerous times, each generation creating an increasingly graphic picture.
Certain kinds of images get repeated a lot - diagrammatic drawings, old global maps, body parts, and the refuse and rubble of a torn-down building.
What to make of this mix?
The virtue of the walk-in temple structure is that it causes the art experiencer to see this as a sacred space. This encourages a heightened awareness. But what's communicated is not so clear.
In frequently alternating pretty images of lips and noses with pictures of rubble, which certainly suggests decay and loss, the artists have set up a dramatic contrast. Humanity-decay-humanity-decay. Dy said she was interested in revealing order in chaos. In the end, however, it comes off more like melodrama - like a storyboard for one of the more artsy music videos.
Calvin & Lloyd's owners - Wiley Francisco and Tom Jones - are primarily concerned with framing and design. But they plan to occasionally devote part of their storefront showroom to contemporary art.
Calvin & Lloyd is at 140 Granby St., at Plume Street. The new art space adds to the sense of a gallery district. They are on the same block as Palmer-Rae Gallery, across the street from Art America, and within a few blocks of the d'Art Center. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
SUSAN DY
``Convergence,'' an installation by Susan Dy and James Bezek, is on
view at Calvin & Lloyd in Norfolk.
by CNB