Exhibit Collaborators Eager to Please, but Mum’s the Word
A 'NO' uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a 'YES' merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble. – Gandhi
Ace Weekly cover story)
by Kim Thomas
Sometimes it seems the world is divided into two sorts: those who can keep a secret; and those who love to play the spoiler. Just try to not find out what you do not yet want to know, and you better believe someone will stroll your way with a blabbermouth full of who won the big game, the newest wrinkle in Don Draper’s mad life, and/or what Sue Sylvester did last night to thwart the Glee Club.
"We R Here 2 Please You" by James Shambhu
Oil, shellac, Kryon on concrete board
Not Aimee Lynne-Hirchowitz, though. As organizer of Tuesday's collaboration for the Little/Gaines Artistic Series, I WANT TO PLEASE YOU showcase at UK , Lynne-Hirchowitz knows the value of keeping the mystery alive. Not one to take away the joy of discovery, she keeps her own artistic details close to her vest in order not to ruin the surprise of the reveal when the exhibit opens next week, and resists the temptation to take a peek at what her fellow partners-in-art have done. However, much like Kelli Burton’s Pet Milk smashingly successful effort of last year (see Ace Weekly, November 2008) in which Lynne-Hirchowitz was a participant, some insight can be gleaned from what she does provide simply in her choice of artists with whom she collaborates.
"The name of the show is I WANT TO PLEASE YOU and basically, the art is a surprise for both you and me. Cara Lundy, a graduate of the Arts Administration Program at UK, is curating ... meaning she is the one actually choosing how to hang the pieces that were created by myself, Andrea Sims, and James Shambhu, and in what order. Each of us are coming from a very different place, both visually and conceptually, but we have a few guiding principles we worked with in order to make the show cohesive; we took that show title 'I WANT TO PLEASE YOU' and thought about it, using it as the generator for the work."
A graduate of the UK College of Fine Arts and The Art Institute of Boston, Lynne-Hirchowitz was selected as the Little/Gaines Artist for November. I WANT TO PLEASE YOU will be the third program in the Series sponsored by UK 's Little Fine Arts Library and the Gaines Center for the Humanities. Four Little/Gaines Artists are named for 2009; each of the four artists choose other artists working in the same or different genre with whom they will collaborate on a program centered around a theme or unifying principle.
Before her move to Kentucky in 1998, Lynne-Hirchowitz worked as an assistant to several well-known veterans of the fashion and design world in New York . When asked about her influences and inspirations, she says there are too many to name and that her varied bodies of work are the results of her experiences and exposures. "I'm grateful for Art. I'm interested in so many things but can never predict what I will find fascinating. Art is the only thing constantly willing to explain the world to me little by little, no matter what."
Aimee says she is working with entirely new media and "my work is really abstract. It's not a change for me conceptually, but I think people who are familiar with my figurative work will be surprised, yet I've been working in this abstract way for at least ten years, I've just not shown that work because it didn't fit with the shows I've had. For I WANT TO PLEASE YOU, my work turned into pieces devoted to the "cover up" (of one's own self) as the way of pleasing: simply avoiding by using the cover up. That's all I can say...I'm happy with it.”
Her collaborators on I WANT TO PLEASE YOU are James Shambhu and Andrea Sims. "The show's title was the jumping off point for the works included in the show," says Lynne-Hirschowitz, the Little Gaines Series Artist for the month of November. "I was really honored to be asked to put together an exhibit of some sort for the Series, and chose James and Andrea because I've always admired their work and never gotten a chance to work with them in an art context. We've all collaborated on events and graphic designs together for other purposes, but never shown (fine art) together. We came up with the idea that we would make work based off a concept, and "I want to please you" was a phrase that was really meaningful---but very, very different---to all of us, so we left it at that. Besides three works we all know will be the same size, the generative words, and the fact that the works are 2D, I know nothing about what they've made; I'm really excited to see what they did and can't wait to put it all together."
James Shambhu admits he could not resist participating in this project. "Aimee Lynne-Hirschowitz asked me to be a part of the exhibition and I couldn't refuse. With the title and jumping off point being ‘I WANT TO PLEASE YOU, ‘so many things were possible. For example, what does it mean to please you on a private level, on an interpersonal level, on a government level on a consumer level? We buy things to please and pacify ourselves. The possibilities were just endless."
Shambhu is well known in Lexington as a multi-faceted artist, and points out that the Little/Gaines series provided him with an opportunity to flex his illustrative muscle. "Another great thing about this show, for me, was I had been wanting to do some work with a more illustrative/pop art sensibility and this exhibit seemed the perfect fit for exploring these ideas." His piece called "We R Here 2 Please You" was created using oil, shellac, Kryon on concrete board. (see photo)
Interior design artist, Andrea Sims, who with her husband, Krim Boughalem, owns and operates the popular Wine+Market downtown (see Ace Weekly, April, 2008) is known for her trompe d'oeil murals. Andrea graduated from Henry Clay High School , Tulane Architecture School and IPEDEC School of Decorative Design in Paris .
Little/Gaines Artist Series intends to help nurture the vibrant community of artists in central Kentucky. The series is inspired by other collaborative projects, including the multimedia show "Pet Milk: A Collaborative Creative Exchange" curated by Burton, which had openings at ArtsPlace in 2008 and Little Fine Arts Library in 2009. The series also was informed by "The McSweeney's Book of Poets Picking Poets," which asked poets to pick favorite poems and poets who in turn picked their favorite poet and poem for five revolutions, and the Kentucky Women Writers Conference’s Hardwick Jones Reading, an annual celebration of mentorship and collaboration in women writers' lives.
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All events are held in the Niles Gallery of the Little Fine Arts Library at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. A discussion and reception will follow each event.
For more information on the Little/Gaines Artist Series, contact Gail Kennedy, director of the Little Fine Arts Library, at (859) 257-4631, or Lisa Broome-Price, associate director of the Gaines Center, at (859) 257-1537
Kim Thomas is a former writer for The Thoroughbred Record, currently works for a downtown law firm, is a member of the Chancel Choir, and is a Commissioned Stephen Minister
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