{"id":35682,"date":"2018-05-06T14:15:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T20:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=35682"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:11:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:11:38","slug":"in-flight-messaging-nina-katchadourian-at-byu-museum-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/in-flight-messaging-nina-katchadourian-at-byu-museum-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"In Flight Messaging: Nina Katchadourian at BYU Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cPretzel Meteor\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Toilet paper hats, seatbelt selfies, and a performance by the Bee Gees normally don\u2019t strike one as elements of an art exhibit, yet these are among the materials that make up the work of Nina Katchadourian in the BYU Museum of Art\u2019s exhibition Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser<\/em>. This mid-career survey of the artist brings a taste of the vibrant contemporary art scene of Brooklyn to students and locals of Brigham Young University, providing a unique change to the museum\u2019s western-focused collections.<\/h4>\n

The exhibit focuses on Katchadourian\u2019s ability to use a wide array of mediums including video, photography, sculpture, and sound installation to mine the creative potential of the world around us. As Katchadourian states, this interdisciplinary approach seeks to find a world that \u201clurks within the mundane.\u201d The success of this creative process is found in the artist\u2019s ability to combine ingenuity and humor, finding artistic possibility in the mundane and a revitalization of the way we see our surroundings.<\/h4>\n

Consistent to this approach is Katchadourian\u2019s practice of creating art outside of her Brooklyn studio, including in libraries, forests, parking lots, and, most notably, airplanes. Finding it difficult to deal with how often traveling took her away from the studio, Katchadourian made the decision to see if she could create art on the plane, using only materials readily at hand.<\/h4>\n

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\u201cPink Volcano\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

One series in particular, Seat Assignment,<\/em> showcases Katchadourian\u2019s creativity with limited space and materials. Working between armrests, Katchadourian transforms items from her carry-on bag, in-flight magazine, and whatever snacks come down the aisle, and then captures her creations on her iPhone. This already constricting process is amplified by a very important, self-imposed rule: \u201cSometimes I dip into what I have brought with me, but I do not pack my bag with props for the project. I stick to things I would naturally have with me on a flight.\u201d<\/h4>\n

This unique situation allows for the creation of striking works such as \u201cPink Volcano,\u201d an altered found photograph with an unusual color scheme, and \u201cPretzel Meteor,\u201d which uses crushed up pretzels and a magazine photo to create a whimsical scene of pretzel mayhem.<\/h4>\n

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From the series \u201cLavatory Portraits in the Flemish Style\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Perhaps the most striking products of Katchadourian\u2019s time spent on planes are the works in her series Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style.<\/em> As the title suggests, Katchadourian\u2019s series explores her ability to create Flemish-style portraiture in an airplane lavatory. Inspired by the artist\u2019s spontaneous decision to put a tissue paper toilet seat cover on her head, the series focuses on \u201cselfies\u201d taken of the artist in airplane lavatories, using a mixture of toilet paper and other personal belongings that re-create 15th-century Flemish portraiture. The similarities to Flemish style in her work of iPhone selfies are rather outstanding from far away, as it is not until close inspection that the audience realizes it is simply a woman with toilet paper piled upon her head. . This humorous juxtaposition between the real and the fanciful is the epitome of Katchadourian as an artist, and speaks to her inventive nature.<\/h4>\n

Pushing the boundaries of her surroundings even further is a series of videos containing the same toilet paper-clad Katchadourian lip-syncing to the music of AC\/DC, the Bee Gee\u2019s, Freddy Mercury and, notably, Queen and David Bowie\u2019s 1981 duet \u201cUnder Pressure.\u201d The latter challenges both the audience and the artist as Katchadourian finds the balance between being humorous and genuinely moving. In text accompanying the exhibition, she says the video has both personal significance \u2014 \u201cthe title alludes to the many kinds of pressure [she is] under in the course of the project\u201d \u2014 while also creating a moving fantasy \u201cof the interaction between the characters . . . as a lovers\u2019 quarrel, with one character acting distant and cold as the other one begs to be given one more chance.\u201d This duality of meanings provides viewers the opportunity to find for themselves the significance of the works, and how their interpretation fits along with the artist\u2019s own intentions.<\/h4>\n

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\u201cUnder Pressure\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Though Katchadourian\u2019s imaginative works may come across to some as simply a series of silly bathroom-stall selfies, there is a great amount of depth to be found behind her unique ability to blend wit and resourcefulness of materials that finds meaning in the world around us. As BYU Museum of Art educator Lynda Palmer says, \u201cMany artists throughout the ages have insightfully reflected the currents of their day, and Katchadourian is no exception. While humor is intrinsic to her art, she often employs it to reveal us <\/em>to our 21st<\/sup>-century selves. In this exhibition, we come to see our world more clearly in unexpected ways, and find ourselves laughing at the foibles and idiosyncrasies of our contemporary lives.\u201d Conceptually rich while surprisingly accessible, Curiouser <\/em>is a breath of fresh air to be found at the BYU Museum of Art.<\/h4>\n

Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser, BYUMOA<\/a>, Provo, through Aug. 11.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cPretzel Meteor\u201d Toilet paper hats, seatbelt selfies, and a performance by the Bee Gees normally don\u2019t strike one as elements of an art exhibit, yet these are among the materials that make up the work of Nina Katchadourian in the BYU Museum of Art\u2019s exhibition Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1565,"featured_media":36097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Flemish12-smaller_preview-350x415-1.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 01:42:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1565"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35682"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98453,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35682\/revisions\/98453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}