Robert Yoder‘s exhibition at Howard House is a declaration of a frustrated sense of disconnection, both with his work and what he’s seeing from others.
“I’m not feeling it,” he said last Saturday, cleaning up after a workshop in the gallery.
By the late 1990s, Yoder’s calligraphic collages made of wood scraps, appropriated street signs and/or Legos were a certifiable hit in the region and beyond. From clunky materials he created magisterial abstractions, visual symphonies whose sheet music came from castoffs.
(Union Bridge, 2000, wood/road signs, 48″x48″x2″)
(Aluminum Management, painted found wood, 2004, 24″x24″x2″)
(Sunset, 2005, Lego on wood panel, 24″x24)
Such beginnings lead to substantial careers. Once Yoder had established the form, however, he found he didn’t want to continue to explore variations on its theme.
Is he another victim of the Pound imperative, make it new serving as an excuse for Attention Deficit Disorder? What if Dan Flavin hadn’t stuck with florescent light, Elizabeth Peyton abandoned portraits and Gary Hill walked away from video?
Not all artists can be as successfully chameleon as Bruce Nauman. Many best serve themselves by mining a single vein. Life is short. Art’s best chance of being long is internal coherence.
Other Seattle artists have done well improvising off the base Yoder created, including, below, painters Alfred Harris….
and Ken Kelly.
Meanwhile, Yoder struggled.
Presently
he finds himself thinking along three separate lines: paper collage,
painting and sculpture. Examples from each line a wall at Howard House.
Facing it is a salon-style wall of art he admires, from thrift
store paintings to photos by Wolfgang Tillmans and Sue De Beer as well
as paintings by Jim Nutt and Ben Waterman.
Yoder sits at a
table, the work of friends and heroes at his back and his own work in
front of him, hoping to derive support for what he continues to make.
On a corner is a video of him dancing by himself.
Is he hoping for divine intervention? The title of his exhibition, residency, collaboration and workshop is, Send Me An Angel.
Maybe he’s his own angel. All three of his options for future work are viable.
(Eric, 2009. Vinyl & collage on paper. 14″x11″)
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower – Dylan Thomas
(Untitled, 2009, oil/panel. 14″x11″) Form paralyzed by its field.
Untitled,
2009. Forget the white tape at the bottom, which is a makeshift means
of covering a black strip. Yoder made this piece during his residency,
and it’s one of the best things I’ve seen from him since he rejected
his strong suit. With a hat tip to Fred Sandback and Christopher Wilmarth as well as the unraveling geometries of his own work, Yoder seems to have come up with a place for glass art to go.
Final workshop Saturday, 1-3:30 p.m. $40. To participate, contact the gallery. Send Me An Angel ends same day.
Thanks for the plug Regina, although, despite your repeated aspersions I come up with my work all on my own.
Hi Alfred. What you’re doing is a silky version of Robert Yoder. There’s nothing silky about Yoder, and you’re fully entitled to take inspiration from wherever you want. Personally, I think that credit should be given to Yoder, at least a nod in his direction, which is why I’ve mentioned it twice. Only twice. Regina
Actually, my work has always been based on Alfred’s…