Selections from Anne Kingsbury’s “Pataphysical Alphabet.
The letters of the alphabet gain extra meaning in solo exhibitions from Helen Lee, a UW-Madison assistant professor, and Milwaukee’s Anne Kingsbury at the James Watrous Gallery on the third floor of the Overture Center.
Kingsbury’s “Beaded Journal Page.
Kingsbury is a lifelong artist who served as executive director of Milwaukee’s Woodland Pattern Book Center for almost 40 years. Her Permission to Play is a multimedia exploration of color, form, and words.
The show’s largest series, “Journal Pages,” is a series of digital prints, incorporating multiple layers of hand-drawn figures and lists of daily tasks that Kingsbury recorded between 1977 and 2002.
With entries such as “Dishes - 15 min.; Trim Tree - 15 min; Reading - 30 min,” Kingsbury elevates the small, often-overlooked moments that make up the substance of our lives.
“These are all regular activities that I’ve timed. It’s not a to-do list; it’s a list of being-done,” says Kingsbury, adding that she believes the act of journal-writing is itself an art form. “I like to call it an homage to the unimportant.”
Kingsbury also displays vivid and intricately crafted beadwork pieces, each one combining a letter from the English alphabet with an animal. Billed as a “Pataphysical Alphabet,” an extension of French Absurdism, the figures are playful and refreshing.
After being displayed in Permission to Play, “Pataphysical Alphabet” will be moving east. Yale University’s Beinecke Library recently purchased it, along with the artist’s beaded journal and several earlier works.
“I suppose you could call it a miracle.” says Kingsbury of the acquisition, which was facilitated by Jen Bervin, a visiting artist to the Woodland Pattern Book Center late last year. “Someone saw my work and took the time to go out of their way for it.”
Jim Escalante Photo by Jim Escalante
Lee’s “Typings.
Lee’s Em Space Engram provides a balance to the bright and whimsical aesthetic of
Her work, done in sleek glass, enamel and primarily black-and-white, feels both futuristic and mysterious, elevating typography beyond its quotidian uses.
The first piece viewers encounter in the shared gallery space is Lee’s intriguing
Jim Escalante Photo by Jim Escalante
Helen Lee’s “Alphabet” cabinet.
“Alphabet,” which includes small glass squares, each containing a different letter, and housed in a clear, cabinet-like structure. The work references the roots of typography and the days of the letterpress, when individual letters were held in trays. “I like to think of it as a collapsed history of typography,” says Lee.
“Typings” is a set of eight enameled images that address the era of the typewriter. The images depict winding rolls of typewriter ribbon, flashing across the enamel like a serpent and fusing together into a beautifully complex mass. Linked trails of a typewriter ball create a series of winding trails and lines.
Ultimately, both artists’ works, on display through June 24, draw our attention to the underappreciated elements of our everyday lives.
