Arts & Entertainment
thebreezeonline.com | Jan. 30, 2012
Alger work featured in Santa Monica art exhibit
Ardon Alger’s multimedia presentation titled “Once Upon” was on display in the Santa Monica Art Gallery. Ardon’s work was about how the perspective changes on relationships as time goes on and what you learned from it in life. “The bed carries a great many cultural and personal symbols. It can be a place of intense pleasure or pain,” he said. Along with the Santa Monica Art Gallery Alger also has work being displayed at USC’s Fisher Museum of Art through April 7.
PALOMA SOLIS
F
ine Arts Professor Ardon Alger has been shooting photos since 1981. There is no question that Alger’s unique style of photography requires a second glance and a new perspective to fully comprehend the meaning behind his photos. On Saturday, Jan. 21, a 30-year reunion art show was held at the Arena 1, a project of Santa Monica Art Studios, where Alger’s piece was featured. Curated by Sheila Pinkel, “Refocus: Multicultural Focus” housed the pieces of 19 culturally diverse artists, including Mitchel Friedman, Susan Feldman Tucker and Karen Florek. Thirty years ago, 31 artists of the original exhibition—including Alger—showed their work with the goal that no historic moment could be truly understood unless artistic work from diverse cultures is part of that history. Therefore artists provided a piece of art pertaining to their own distinct culture. At the art show the concluding displays varied from nature landscapes, industrial lines, Asian military, gangs, even illusionism. Even though each artist was assigned the same subject, they clearly depicted their own take on it. Both Alger’s pieces from 1981 and present day represent relationships. One demonstrates the relationship between three stools using the light as a symbol representing change or drama. The other was a slide show of images of a bedroom. Each slide adjusts the structure of the bed and manages to evoke different tones. The bed is intended to represent relationships, which change over time. “Like much of my previous work, this work investigates the roles of photography in our culture through the symbolism of light and though performance,” Alger said. “Whereas previously the photographic performance was explicit, here it is implicit.” A simple bed has the capability of bringing pleasure or pain; it can be a place of depression or relaxation. However perceived, one’s views and judgments of relationships can change over time.
JOE WORRELL
California Baptist University
What is your purpose? We believe that God created you for a purpose. You may not know exactly what that purpose is but you know it exists and you know college can help you discover and live it. That is what more than 5,000 students do every day at CBU. Students from across the the world travel here to prepare for careers as diverse as electrical engineering, music, applied theology, and nursing. With more than 100 majors and concentrations to choose from, you’re sure to find one that equips you for success in your career and, more importantly, in your calling.
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