My Obsession, Curated by Richard Gess June 5, 2004

Sa 5 - My Obsession, Curated by Richard Gess - opening reception, 8 pm
Chris Gusek, a Small Gallery Exhibition - opening reception, 6 - 8 pm

My Obsession
What constitutes an artistic obsession? It?s the work that the artist can?t help making. It?s the idea that comes unbidden, the sight the mind?s eye can?t stop staring at, the notion that continually recurs. Under the skin, it has to come out, but it may not ever go away. Sometimes an obsession begins in a dispassionate or scientific way and either continues in a logical vein or slides off into compulsive activity that leads to the forgetting of the original rationale. Other times it has the quality of a religious or psychiatric possession, seizing the artist involuntarily and controlling her work. In Donald Barthelme?s story ?The Falling Dog,? about an artist bonked on the head by a dog who can?t think of anything afterwards but dogs, obsession literally falls from the sky. In real life, the syndrome?s etiology is usually less clear-cut. My Obsession was conceived out of curiosity about what artists might be able to reveal about the way an overriding idea or image gets a purchase on their imaginations. The five artists in the show are united by their surrender to Something Bigger; the show gives each of them a chance to share their usually solitary interactions with muses that have not necessarily been invited.

The lineup: Rose Barron (boldly inserting herself into the last 500 years of art history), Robert Cheatham (wallowing in bibliomania), Christine Dehne (descending from Boston in the throes of obsessive dieting) Justine Rubin (continuing in the OCD tradition of ?My Vacation for Lunch? and ?If You Say Strawberry,? her 2002 Eyedrum installations), and Jill Stoll (determinedly photographing every sidewalk lamp in Central Park within a narrow framework of rules--see www.dayburner.com).

Chris Gusek, "Deceased" a Small Gallery Exhibition
Chris Gusek's "Deceased" can be considered a dark, uncomfortable, yet comical approach into the human mind and all of its many voices. Set in a murder scene, "Deceased" will allow you to step out of the everyday toil of existence and view reality from the position of your primal self, forcing you to decide which your better half is. Chris Gusek was born and raised in Agawam, Massachusetts. She has studied a variety of the fine arts, such as photography, illustration, and graphic design. Driven by the need for change, she moved to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia in 1998. Her shadowy, yet humorous approach to life and death sometimes can create a strange uneasiness that forces a look into human darkness, which inevitably makes the viewer want more.