VISUAL/ARTS
LET IT BURN William Lewis’ Rapid Oxidation debuts at Enso Artspace CHRISTOPHER SCHNOOR give the impression of Since its inception, Enso overheated combusArtspace has focused on tion, while “Bonfire 2” exhibiting the art of its evokes a burning world members in its small but in free fall. distinctive warehouse in The most haunting Garden City. Howimages in the exhibit ever, Enso’s mission is a are Lewis’ dead or dybroader one, stipulating ing campfires—some, that it “seeks to engage like “Smith’s Ferry Fire and invigorate the arts Ring,” glow with a few community by hosting remaining embers, and regular exhibitions and others are completely events.” expired. Oil paintings With funding from like “Dead Out” have a Boise Weekly Cover a scorched earthiness to Auction grant, Enso is them that recall, in their now showing its first way, the Wehrmachtnon-member exhibit, tortured landscapes of William Lewis’ Rapid German painter Anselm Oxidation. Kiefer. Enso co-founder Cate The paintings are Brigden called Lewis a studies in black and prolific artist whose art dark grays, their night on canvas and paper is shadows creep across bold and thoughtful, the encircling stones, and the implications of obscuring the charred which are often unexremnants, letting in the pected. cold and dark. These “We knew it would works stand as chilling make for a strong metaphors for being show,” Brigden said. alone in the wild. The point is well The theme of selftaken. Lewis is not only imposed solitude is a contemporary artist of considered another way originality and skill, but “Thoreau’s Cabin (Replica),” oil on canvas, 2012. in Rapid Oxidation. an intellectual historian The title can also be whose subject matter interpreted as “fire of encircling either a fire yet to be set or just and technique reveal a the mind,” as Lewis puts it, referring to the dying embers. deep interest in human thought and its relaspiritual and intellectual ferment of the midIt’s tempting to see the Enso exhibit as tion to the natural world. From pre-modern 19th century characterized by utopian coma sequel to Burn Pile, Lewis’ 2010 show at illustrations combining science and faith to Northwest Nazarene University. Whereas the munities, ideological societies and essayists degraded roadside remnants of small town latter depicted the various stages of what can like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David billboards and hardscrabble farm impleThoreau (plus the dark romanticism of writbe described as a family cleansing ritual—in ments, Lewis finds beauty in commonplace ers like Edgar Allan Poe) and the trajectories which the debris of daily rural life is pushed ingenuity, imagination and design. His renthey created for the future. together and burned—Lewis’ large gouaches derings of manufactured artifacts from 19th To make his point, Lewis portrays two in Rapid Oxidation seem spontaneous and and early 20th century America are nostalcabins belonging to a pair of famous nonout of control like a force of nature. gic, yet refreshingly alive and personable. conformists, who took to living in the woods These pieces are reminiscent of William In 2008, Lewis turned to portraying for solace and solitude. His large oil on canTurner’s famous “Burning of the Houses of lone figures and objects in nature in simple vas, “Thoreau’s Cabin (Replica),” depicts the Parliament in 1835,” another compositions that convey a shanty Thoreau built in 1845 beside Walden icon of romanticism. psychology of contemplation Pond to pen his American classic. In oil on canvas and and isolation. This increasRapid Oxidation runs In a contemporary extension of this nonwatercolor and gouache on ingly prominent streak of through Friday, June 1. conformist ideal, the other cabin belongs to paper, Lewis portrays various romanticism in Lewis’ art ENSO ARTSPACE incarnations of fire in the wild, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, who hid out for comprises single figures in na120 E. 38th St., Ste. 105 years, stewing in his extremist environmental including the soaring vertical 208-991-0117 ture and solitary rock formaensoartspace.com ideas and planning lethal attacks. A diptych “Large Fire,” which shoots tions with hidden meanings, called “Kaczynski’s Cabin (Two Views)” huge flames into the night sky, both of which echo German depicts his windowless structure both on site and the broad “Large Fire artist Caspar David Friedrich’s and in FBI custody. 2,” which generates intense heat and light early 19th century romantic portrayals of On the gallery floor before it, a porcelain against a crisscross composition of blackened man’s spiritual communion with nature. In sculpture of a burned-out campfire sits as a wood, like a Franz Kline painting on fire. these, Lewis introduced his motif of the rumute witness to such craziness. Even small, abstract gouaches like “Plasma” dimentary campfire, a simple ring of stones WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
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