True Story #82
The Fort Worth Community Art Center is a vibrant, active center with several rotating shows ranging from emerging to established artists. Right now they have eight shows up at one time. I only have room to mention just a few of these shows. This is a typical month for them because the building was once the Fort Worth Modern, so the exhibition space is huge. I remember visiting when the Fort Worth Modern was there and they had a retrospective of Ed Ruscha. If my memory serves me, I think that might have been their last show before they moved into their new building.
Some of that Ed Ruscha retrospective spirit can be found in the current show of Diane Durant. Both artists use words to evoke our imaginations. Durant is a little cheeky with her words in some pieces. Not in a Richard Prince dumb joke way, but rather more playful and vivid. These artworks are like prompts to start igniting our imagination. I am reminded of a book I have about ancient Rome poem fragments. I found that the fragments took me places beyond the poems. I had to fill in the blanks and try to create a narrative from the little information I was given. Durant opens us up to make our own stories.
Particularly narrative stories in art prompt you, the viewer, to seek out ideas and thoughts that go beyond the static image. Take Diego de Silva y Velázquez’s Las Meninas (The Ladies-in-Waiting), the narrative might be the royal family, or about the painter himself, or as the title suggest the ladies-in-waiting. The painting also allows us to imagine the scene taking all kinds of different directions. This is our subjective will at play. The image may state one thing, but the way the ideas play out in the viewer’s head can be unique. Without the need for an image, Durant is using words to take us to the unique experience.
I have noticed over the years of visiting art, artists, and galleries that many times the contemporary conceptual artists come out of the tradition of photography. Conceptual artists/photographers like Dornith Doherty, Kathy Lovas, and Sebastien Boncy all take concepts and drill down to reach deeper meanings. Durant is part of this community that moves fluidly between photography and conceptual pieces. It seems to me that great photography takes a kind of thought process that pushes deeper into the intellectual investigations. A few years ago, Durant installed a show titled I Tried to Follow Eleanor Antin. I Only Got Halfway. The show was at 500X and Durant and her collaborator dug deep into a concept and produced a mix of photo essay and installation.
Diane Durant’s show titled Mental Pictures ends on June 29th at the Fort Worth Community Art Center.