Arthur Travis at Dabora Gallery
I had to walk through several dark rooms - with black curtains, low-lit lamps, and moody settings - to reach “Book One,” the new exhibition by Arthur Travis at Dabora Gallery.
As it turns out, it is the perfect way to introduce patrons to what lies ahead. The overall first impression of Travis’ show - text on lacquered-wood plaques, raw paintings, and a video presentation - is of a David Lynch movie set.
The show centers around Book One, a publication Travis wrote and illustrated. The walls are decorated with samples from that book, giving brief glimpses and snippets into the story line and challenging the viewer to draw his own conclusions from a world seemingly turned upside-down and with no simple explanations in sight.
The story line evolving from the plaques is one of sexual deviance and dysfunction, about characters with both sets of genitalia who are journeying to find a mysterious doctor. The paintings are purposefully imperfect, allowing the wood grain to show through the paint.
One painting is of two people kissing and is more filthy than sexy, their souls seemingly bared to the quick as they connect. The man is pale and harrowed, the woman lustful. Another is of a skull superimposed over a wood background; an unrefined image that talks to what lies beneath us all, what our true selves appear as when unmasked. Two chromosomes (hermaphrodite genes) lurk in one of the eyesockets.
The final painting, perhaps the centerpiece of the show, is of two characters on a stage. It is a performance, with a two-sided woman (breasts and buttocks in front and rear) reaching backward toward the man, the man with arms extended. They cannot cover the distance between them, cannot seem to become connected. Behind them, their shadows loom on a wall, her still reaching, him turned away playing a fiddle. Which is the real side of them - the presentation on the stage or the shadow they project?
This ambiguity is exactly what Travis strives for in his work, and especially this particular show. He is examining his obsession with duality and dual gender roles in society; especially what society and the world would be like if science found a way to create a combined male-female human that could procreate itself.
“This show is planting the seed in people’s minds, so that at the next show, their opinion can evolve. I believe that viewers should interpret art for themselves. That’s what life is about, finding your own point of view. I consciously keep things fluid and ambiguous to avoid forcing an opinion on someone,” Travis said.
“What if we were self-contained and genderless? What would life be like? That is what drives me in my art, trying to find out what would be the quest in life then. Would life have meaning, passion, contrast? Would we find something to replace that missing spark?” he asks.
The actual Book One is available at the show for perusal and purchase, but as expected, it does not provide answers, only more questions. The dialogue between the viewer and art is only the beginning of the journey.
Come form your own opinions at “Book One,” now showing at Dabora Gallery through December 8. Travis will be present on all Saturdays and encourages viewers to engage him in conversation about what they think.