Forget about getting back to the future. A new multiverse is possible now, places where the worlds of art collide with metaphysics in the imagination. One Detroit artist reports that in the creative process, we can all envision and build a better world to share and within each of us.
See what we mean as Oakland University Art Gallery presents “Remain Calm: Graem Whyte.” Curated by Dick Goody, the themed exhibition of sculptures and installations by Graem Whyte is on exhibit at OU Art Gallery through Oct. 7, 2012.
From Oakland University Art Gallery:
The artistic practice of Graem Whyte lies at the intersection of family, community, collaboration, craftsmanship, metaphysics and the imaginative of repurposing materials. In this exhibition he focuses on four projects paralleling themes drawn from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The resulting sculptures and installations encourage relational involvement. They are not merely to be contemplated, the viewer is invited to participate and engage, to complete the work.
The mythological themes in “Remain Calm” explore war, death, famine and conquest. However, Whyte reinterprets them by presenting their inverse viewpoints. Each theme is transposed into something positive. Hence “war” becomes “play,” “death” “sleep,” “famine” “purification,” and “conquest” “enlightenment.” Addressing universal issues of morality and mortality, he engages the world, its challenges and its contradictions.
This exhibition bridges Detroit and the suburbs. It is a distillation of Whyte’s locale: “Popps Packing” (a former meat packing business) which serves as home, studio, gallery and de facto community center. Located at the northern rim of Hamtramck, an enclave within the City of Detroit, here Whyte produces works in a variety of scale from small domestic sculptures, to mid sized assemblages, to larger collaborative projects.
Remain Calm is accompanied by a full-color catalogue.
In conjunction with this exhibition Graem Whyte is participating in “Dlectricity” with the installation: “The Ice Cave.” “Dlectricity,” the mid-town Detroit Art & Light Festival, takes place October 5 & 6 and is part of Art Detroit Now Gallery Week.