Artillery: The Nothing That Is
Constructs of Beauty, Chelsea Dean in The Nothing That Is at the Brand Library and Art Center. Photo courtesy of the artist.
November 20, 2019
by Genie Davis
EXCERPT:
The sculptural mixed media works of Chelsea Dean includes found objects from abandoned desert homesteads, to which she adds elements of gold leaf. She pays honor and homage through these objects, her drawings, collage, and printmaking. Discarded elements are ghostly treasures in Dean’s hands, both repurposed and reimagined — the stuff of fantasy.
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In the haunting group show The Nothing That Is, now at the Brand Library and Art Center, curators Yaron Dotan and Christine Rasmussen have shaped a powerful exhibition that takes as its inspiration a Wallace Stevens poem that suggests viewers behold “nothing that is not there, and the nothing that is.” The exhibition includes mixed media, painting, and sculptural pieces, as well as a multi-image video installation, that are thought-provoking and rich. The viewer feels submerged in a world that emphasizes the contemplation of aloneness in many pieces; while others seem supercharged to bring us to light and communion.