Sheppard Gallery had
displayed Justin Maes's works from October through the early of December. Return of the Gold was a series of
large-scale installations presenting the theme of Western American culture. Accroding
to UNR website, the sculptures were the exploration on iconology, a studying
about the connection between the meaning and the symbols in an image.
A short interview
video projected on a wall introduced the process of Maes's two works, Almost Cotton and Chicken Feed. Almost Cotton
was the pink sheep sculptures. Originally it was a black sheep but Maes
repainted it with the color pink to illustrate cotton candy. He thought it was
a bad joke to show that every sheep's dream is to grow cotton. Chicken Feed was also repainted for this
exhibition with the candy corn color based on the nickname "chicken feed" named
by a candy corn company. The design of shadow for chicken was mentioned in the
interview as well. The long projection represented the big attitude of this
small rooster.
Chicken Feed and Golden Cactus were two of
my most favorite works in the gallery. I really liked how the shadow was set up
for the chickens and the cactus. Personally I thought it reinforced the spatial
perception, making the installation be able to impress the viewers more
effectively. Overall speaking, Maes's works were often vivid and colorful.
Because of that, I found that I was really attracted by this exhibition.
Western American culture usually relates to cowboy, desert, pioneer… and other
images with almost brownish colors. However, Maes perfectly employed colors in
his work Return of the Gold. He
brought out a different but playful way to view Western America culture.
Interview video played in the gallery:
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