‘Table’ Tackles Space Perception

Bring up Mather House, and the usual response probably isn’t “fluorescent wonderland”—neon pink and bright orange do not predominate in its bare, concrete-covered hallways and common areas.

But visitors to the House’s Three Columns Gallery this winter may be pleasantly surprised by the bright colors, engaging geometry and remarkable interaction of three young artists’ new work.

Timothy Steele, Sarah Saltzman, and Tova R. Carlin ’00—all affiliates of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)—have had a unique working environment in preparing for the exhibition, entitled “Three-sided Table.” All three created art for the show based not only on their own ideas and influences, but also on their knowledge of the space in which their art would be exhibited and the other artists’ work with which it would be shown.

According to Sarah R. Lehrer-Graiwer ’05, who organized the exhibition, each artist was familiar with the others’ pieces before they began (though they did not work on the actual project together). In addition, they had seen the gallery and understood the challenges they would face in designing for such a room. “It’s all in response to the space and to their knowledge of the other artists’ work,” she says.

Lehrer-Graiwer, who also organized an exhibit in the gallery last year called “BostonLA,” says that the purpose of the show is to encourage artists who aren’t part of Harvard to do work here. “I wanted to bring people that aren’t in Harvard, people who are young and producing exciting work, to campus,” she says.

Lehrer-Graiwer also faced the consideration of finding artists who knew each other well enough to relate to one another’s work, even if—as was the case in this situation—they saw very little of what their colleagues were actually doing.

Though all three artists lived in different areas of the country while getting work ready for the show, there are several remarkable similarities between all the pieces on display.

Fluorescent colors are prominent as well as blocky, inorganic geometry and stripes. Looking from the construction paper frieze around the upper walkway to the orange and pink wall hanging to a small gray and pink painting, it is in no way obvious who designed what, or even that three different people were involved.

Steele attributes such similarity to the common issues the artists are trying to investigate with their work. “We all have concerns with geometry and how geometry affects natural forms and how geometry affects our lives,” he says.

Both Carlin and Steele mention the same artist—minimalist Sol LeWitt—in discussing their influences. And though much of the work seems at first to have an inorganic feel, the artists agree that people and the human condition are very much represented.

Another concern all three bring up as central to their work is the discrepancy between perception and reality. “We talk a lot about the difference between concepts of experience and reality of experience,” Carlin says, a discrepancy which Steele describes as the “rupture between percept and concept.”

But the more important connection between the artists is undoubtedly their personal friendship. Steele and Carlin were in the same class at RISD, a relationship Steele describes as constantly being “in each other’s heads and each other’s work.” Saltzman worked closely with both and had known them for a year before Carlin asked her to participate in the exhibition.

The artists also faced the constraints of a unique space in the Three Columns Gallery, the modern architecture of which plays very well against the geometric nature of all three artists’ work.

The idea of designing specifically for the gallery, however, is most evident in Saltzman’s frieze. “This piece would not exist in any other space,” says Lehrer-Graiwer of the work. “It was made for this space.”

Saltzman describes the frieze as a way of exploring “issues within shape and beyond shape,” citing folk artist Emory Blagdon’s installation “The Healing Machine,” as a significant influence. People are represented through triangles of multicultural construction paper (a material stemming from multicultural crayons used to render different skin tones), while the brighter top row alludes to childhood learning experiences.

“I thought of the opticalness and the feeling you got from the bright colors,” Saltzman says by way of explanation, adding that she also wants people to read it for themselves.

Carlin, who lists graphing space as an artistic interest, found the Three Columns Gallery particularly well suited to her work as well as that of her colleagues. “Part of why I love this particular space is because all of us are working in semi-sculpture form,” she says, adding that she finds the gallery “fresh and engaging.”

Steele’s pieces, especially his smaller painting in gray and pink rectangles, also interact with their environment. “If you look at it long enough it would affect the way you see the room,” he says of the painting.

The show is rounded out by Lehrer-Graiwer’s own contribution, a copy of the Rambler, a politically oriented journal published out of Los Angeles’ Chinatown for which she is one of the editors. It is just one more diverse part of an exhibition that shows that different people working in different mediums can create work that is both connected to other pieces and unique in itself.

“I think it came together really well,” says Saltzman of the show. “We all didn’t know what each other was working on, but we were using the same colors, exploring the same issues.”

For Carlin, the issue is perhaps a simpler one. “It’s just really nice to be back here,” the recent graduate says.

Three-sided Table will be on display through Jan. 25, 2005.