{"id":38051,"date":"2017-08-27T08:35:24","date_gmt":"2017-08-27T14:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=38051"},"modified":"2025-11-12T20:13:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:13:56","slug":"when-whimsy-beats-wit-new-springville-exhibit-keeps-it-on-the-light-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/when-whimsy-beats-wit-new-springville-exhibit-keeps-it-on-the-light-side\/","title":{"rendered":"When Whimsy Beats Wit: New Springville Exhibit Keeps It On the Light Side"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gregory Abbott\u2019s \u201cRemlock Too\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

S<\/span>pringville\u2019s newest exhibition,\u00a0Wit and Whimsy: Off the Deep End<\/em>, is more whimsical than it is witty. The majority of the pieces are fun, lighthearted, and fantastic explorations of curiosity, but, for the most part, they fail to deliver on the exhibition\u2019s promise to expose deeper societal and cultural issues through the lenses of wit and whimsy. While the exhibition descriptions of some pieces attempt to pull the audience towards reflections of self-image, exclusionary communities, and race relations, it feels like with even the most poignant works the artists are pulling punches. What is promised as a smiling-through-sorrow exhibition, ultimately comes up short, relying too readily on the smiles without sufficiently exploring the sorrows.<\/h4>\n

The creations that do manage to touch on deeper issues lend the exhibition some much-needed life. In particular, the works of Gregory Abbott and Nicolas Courdy both explore a coming-of-age theme and the particular challenges facing teenagers in Utah today. Abbott\u2019s painting \u201cRemlock Too\u201d (2015) depicts the empty room of a teenager. Above the bed is a reproduction of Henry Fuseli\u2019s \u201cThe Nightmare\u201d (1781) and a large, mechanical horse and a viciously grinning chimpanzee dominate the room, reflections of the imposing characters in Fuseli\u2019s painting. Abbott\u2019s title also highlights teen loneliness \u2014 \u201cremlock\u201d refers to crisis masks worn by airplane pilots in the video game\u00a0Elite: Dangerous<\/em>. When it senses danger, the remlock mask creates a sort of chamber where pilots can be sustained physically but become unaware of their surroundings \u2013 completely alone. Likewise, many teenagers today feel barely sustained and very alone as they are crippled by ADHD drugs, depression, and fear of exclusion because of their gender and sexual identity. Using Fuseli\u2019s \u201cNightmare\u201d as a companion piece, Abbott\u2019s work becomes a compelling exploration of teen suicide and sexuality.<\/h4>\n

Courdy\u2019s contributions also focus on teenage life and sorrows. In his print \u201cgrowth spurts\u201d (2017), the artist explores teenage relationships to technology and the public domain. Courdy\u2019s artistic MO is to search for public-domain images and combine them into powerful and thought-provoking compositions. Most telling in \u201cgrowth spurts\u201d is his use of pixelation as a design element in his composition. Imitating video-game imagery, these pixels allude strongly to child-\u00a0and teen- technology use and the highly debated benefits and detriments of constant internet access. \u201cgrowth spurts\u201d also brings to mind another form of technology in the lives of teens today\u2013social media. Each time a teenager posts on Instagram for social validation, that image can be used to bully, exploit, and sometimes destroy self-confidence and mental health. Courdy\u2019s use of the public domain causes reflection on personal and family use of social media and the harm that can come from it.<\/h4>\n
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\u201cA Worn Through Soul Hanging onto a Dream\u201d by Cynthia Lewis Clark<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another work of particular note is Cynthia Lewis Clark\u2019s \u201cA Worn Through Soul Hanging Onto a Dream\u201d (2014), based on Maya Angelou\u2019s poem \u201cTears.\u201d The encaustic work depicts an androgynous figure holding desperately to a rail, a giant hole punched through its\u00a0body. The depiction is indeed whimsical but the humor is cut cleanly by a poignant feeling of desperation as the figure tries desperately to cling onto life, ambition, family, sanity, citizenship, or myriad other real, difficult human experiences. Though it seems that the figure cannot possibly hold on any longer, that its\u00a0dream already has died, there is a sense of hope that it\u00a0will again pull itself\u00a0to its\u00a0dream and achieve the impossible.<\/h4>\n

Works like these, however, are the exception, and, overall, the exhibition is a curatorial disappointment. Many of the artworks by themselves make for compelling and powerful depictions of deeper issues, but the way the show is curated trivializes these important artworks and issues. For the most part,\u00a0Wit and Whimsy<\/em>\u00a0is a fun, family-friendly exhibition for people who enjoy looking at paintings of cute animals, friendly faces, and colorful monsters. The questions on the gallery plaques designed to help guide discussions are perfect for ages 2-8, but fail to engage an older audience, or to seriously delve into the issues the show description promises: \u201cdeath, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.\u201d With more straightforward literature and description, it could be a powerful collection of images to inspire viewers rather than a carnival spectacle. It could offer a guide to those facing challenges to look for the joy and humor in even the darkest moments of life.<\/h4>\n

Wit and Whimsy: Off the Deep End<\/em>\u00a0is at the Springville Museum of Art through May 19, 2018.<\/p>\n

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Gregory Abbott\u2019s \u201cRemlock Too\u201d Springville\u2019s newest exhibition,\u00a0Wit and Whimsy: Off the Deep End, is more whimsical than it is witty. The majority of the pieces are fun, lighthearted, and fantastic explorations of curiosity, but, for the most part, they fail to deliver on the exhibition\u2019s promise to expose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1567,"featured_media":38052,"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-38051","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\/09\/Gregory-Abbott-Remlack-Too.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 04:48:05","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\/38051","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\/1567"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98579,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38051\/revisions\/98579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}