Gaseous Abstraction
Artist(s)/Author(s): Christine Wang, Kelley Lowe
Publisher: VCUQatar
City Produced/Published: Ar-Rayyan
Reference Number: ST.31739.WA
Location: Stacks
Acquisition Date: 11/7/2020
Copies: 1
Collection: John Burtle
Donated By: John Burtle
Description:

Gaseous Abstraction brings together two separate approaches to critiquing the common contemporary condition of overconsumption. The show attempts to “slow down” the cycle of material consumption by creating space for the viewer to contemplate the formal qualities of materials that are so easily and quickly created, consumed and discarded. Through the incorporation of consumable materials, a different use value - aesthetic instead of functional - highlights different art historical narratives, minimalist and modernist abstraction in the case of Lowe, and “bad” taste painting in the case of Wang. While Lowe’s moment of contemplation is presented through beauty and aesthetics, Wang’s contemplative moment is fraught with cognitive dissonance, irony and guilt.