Obsolescence: Living with Fewer Things

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This catalog is an accompaniment to the exhibit organized and presented by Unbound Visual Arts, Inc. Edited and Produced by Unbound Visual Arts Exhibit Assistants: Jessica Hernandez, Tiffany Chan, and Sophy Zhu Exhibit Coordinator: John Quatrale

UVA MISSION STATEMENT Unbound Visual Arts (UVA) is a unique Allston-Brighton (MA) based non-profit art organization. We serve the Greater Boston community with impactful educational programs and exhibits to encourage learning, engagement, and change.

UVA Board of Directors & Council of Advisors Louise Bonar, Tsun-Ming Chmielinski, Francis Gardino, Marcie Laden, Madeline Lee, Jeanne Lin, Susan Loomis-Wing, Brenda Gael McSweeney, Emelia Misail, Andrea Newman, Ira-Ilana Papadopoulou, John Quatrale, Ruth Rieffanaugh, Diane Sheridan, Karen Smigliani, Jennifer Turpin

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Unbound Visual Arts Inc. 175 Washington St. Overlook Gallery Brighton, MA 02135 UnboundVisualArts.org info@UnboundVisualArts.org 617-657-4278

Curator: John Quatrale

Artists: S.D. Armour, Mary Barton-Lech, Paula Pitman Brown, Stephen Brown, Lee Collilouri, Giti Ganjei, Mary Gillis, John Higgins, Bob Greene, Sam Price, Adriana G. Prat, Allida Warn, and Andrew Zou

Copyright 2024 Unbound Visual Arts, Inc. Nothing in this catalog may be reproduced in any manner without permission, except for exhibit and art reviews or other educational purposes.

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Exhibit Statement This exhibit, featuring representational and non-representational art, presents ideas and images related to the changes in technology, goods, services, and ideas. As these changes occur, obsolescence occurs and this phenomena results in waste and inefficiency. The primary reasons for items becoming outdated are related to changes to technical, functional, and stylistic features. Changes may also be planned. Though change and impermanence for everything is inevitable, obsolescence hastens the amount of unwanted waste and things…

Artists were asked to think of how obsolescence has affected them personally or as part of society. The art delves into this experience or conveys an aspect of that experience and is meaningful to the artist and perhaps the audience.

How can you use fewer things?

Curator John Quartale

Declaración de prueba Esta exposición, que presenta arte representativo y no representacional, presenta ideas e imágenes relacionadas con los cambios en la tecnología, bienes, servicios e incluso ideas.

A medida que ocurren estos cambios, se produce obsolescencia y este fenómeno resulta en desperdicio e ineficiencia. Las principales razones por las que los artículos quedan obsoletos están relacionadas con cambios en las características técnicas, funcionales y estilísticas. También se pueden planificar cambios. Aunque el cambio y la impermanencia para todo son inevitables, la obsolescencia acelera la cantidad de desechos y cosas no deseadas.

Se pidió a los artistas que pensaran en cómo les ha afectado la obsolescencia personalmente o como parte de la sociedad. El arte profundiza en esta experiencia o transmite un aspecto de esa experiencia y es significativo para el artista y quizás para el público. ¿Cómo puedes usar menos cosas?

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Artwork

S. D. Armour Media Master(y) Earthenware Clay, Reference Book Covers, VHS Tape, 35mm film, Reclaimed Wood Frame 16 x 28 inches

S. D. Armour Media Medley Reference Book Covers and Pages, VHS Tape, 35mm film, DVDs, Computer Memory Sticks, Reclaimed Wood Frame, Beading 22 x 26 inches

S. D. Armour Media in the Round Reference Book Pages, Cassette Tape, 35mm Film, Audio Tape, DVDs, Beading

Mary Barton-Lech Trolley Line Mixed Media with Fabric and Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 16 inches

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Paula Pitman Brown Growth and Parting, Rising from the Ashes Oil on Canvas 36 x 28 inches

Paula Pitman Brown Enchantment in the Boneyard Oil on Canvas 36 x 28 inches

Paula Pitman Brown Perseverance Oil on Canvas 30 x 40 inches

Stephen Brown The Hotel Watercolor 16 x 13 inches

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Lee Collilouri Space Portal 1 Oil Paint, Sharpie Markers on Canvas 20 x 16 inches

Lee Collilouri Clunky Machine Portal Sharpie Markers on Canvas 12 x 12 inches

Lee Collilouri Electric Energy Portal Oil Paint, Sharpie Markers on Canvas 12 x 12 inches

Giti Ganjei Miracle of Coexistence Acrylic on Paper 20 x 16 inches

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Giti Ganjei Creation of Turquoise Oil on Canvas 30 x 40 inches

Giti Ganjei Rise Oil on Canvas 36 x 48 inches

Giti Ganjei Cradle of Humanity Oil on Canvas 36 x 18 inches

Mary Gillis Northern Avenue Bridge Solarplate Print 16 x 20 inches

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Bob Greene Bounty Digital Photograph 16 x 20 inches

Bob Greene City of Boxes Digital Photograph 11 x 14 inches

Bob Greene End of the Market Digital Photograph 11 x 14 inches

John Higgins Steam & Snow Oil on Wood 21 x 25 inches

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John Higgins World of Work Oil on Canvas 27 x 21 inches

John Higgins Conversations Oil on Canvas 18 x 22 inches

Sam Price Uncanny Valley Acrylic Paint 18 x 24 inches

Adriana G. Prat But First, Think Differently Acrylic, Gouache, Acrylic Pen, and Ink Pen on Corrugated Cardboard 15 x 10 inches

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Adriana G. Prat Disconnected I Fabric, Earbuds, Thread, Paper Thread, iPhone Box, Wire, Glue 31 x 12 inches

Adriana G. Prat Poupée I Fabric, Earbuds, Ribbon, Thread, Cardboard, and Décor Ceramic Mask 32 x 13 inches

Allida Warn Ubiquitous Growth, Ubiquitous Obsolescence Repurposed Coffee Bags, Found Object Lamp 40 x 18 inches

Allida Warn Ubiquitous Growth Recycled Coffee Bags, Frame 12 x 16 inches

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Andrew Zou Abandoned Harbour Archival Inkjet Print 24 x 24 inches

Andrew Zou Engine Gears Archival Inkjet Print 24 x 36 inches

Andrew Zou Obsolete Buildings Archival Inkjet Print 24 x 24 inches

Andrew Zou Sofa in the River Archival Inkjet Print 24 x 36 inches

Art in this exhibit may be purchased by visiting the gallery or going to the Unbound Visual Arts online art shop

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Artist Statements and Biographies 1. S.D. Armour Artist Statement: My wish is to inspire all who see my artwork to look again at the old, so-called "worthless" scraps of our natural and industrial world and to find nourishment, inspiration and a deeper seeing of the art that can be found in the world around us.

Biography: The joys, wisdom, and guidance for my life have come from the natural/spiritual and scientific/analytical worlds equally. Throughout my life I’ve been torn between a career in science and the creative arts; I constantly seek balance between the two. I have created visual art all of my life. My formal training has been in science and technology as well as graphic design, 2D and 3D art. I am also a trained master gardener and avid photographer of nature and architectural elements. This brings a lively diversity to my work and allows for a unique blend of those worlds and sensibilities. My connection with nature understandably extends to how we humans live on this earth and how we care for it. My work has been shown and available for sale in the past two decades through personal viewings and at Open Studios, Art & Craft events and Art & Craft related venues around the metropolitan Boston area. Member for several years of Fuller Craft Museum, MFA, Somerville Arts Collaborative, HPAA, Dorchester Art Collaborative, Unbound Visual Arts, Regular participant of Open Studios in Roxbury, Dorchester, Somerville, Natick , Newton, West Medford, Jamaica Plain from 2001 to present.

2. Mary Barton-Lech Artist Statement: This piece shows a view of a now obsolete trackless trolley line. The trolley buses were over 80 years old when they took their last ride in 2022. The old trolley buses have been replaced by diesel hybrid buses, which are more polluting. There is a plan to replace the hybrids with full battery powered buses. Until then, the houses wait, facing the inbound buses, and putting up with more pollution and noise.

Biography: I am a lifelong artist who spent 20 years teaching and being inspired by public school students in grades K-12. My current work has layers of acrylic paint and fabric collage. The painting sets the initial tone and inspires a drawing on fabric, which is then cut out and applied to the canvas with a clear acrylic coat. I love working with the structure of this process. I am in constant dialogue with the work, and enjoy juxtaposing painting with precisely drawn and cut fabric. I am drawn to the intersection of the built and natural environments I see around me in my Boston area neighborhood.

Education

Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Massachusetts College of Art, BFA, 1982 Endicott College, MEd, Arts & Learning, 2006

Endicott College, 2007 Belmont Gallery of Art, 2010 Danforth Art Museum, 2011 Endicott College, 2012 Belmont Gallery of Art, 2012

Montserrat College of Art, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 Belmont Gallery of Art, 2021 UVA Arthaus Gallery, 2023 UVA Overlook Gallery, 2023

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3. Paula Pitman Brown Artist Statement: Each of the three paintings I am submitting are about the obsolescence of old and retired automobiles. These cars are in "boneyards" in the forest or junkyards by a current highway with cars being the protective “womb” for the growth of new trees. Whether the cars in my paintings have been in accidents, no longer have functioning engines or bodies, these cars have lost their usefulness and litter the landscape. Automobiles evolve and change with technology, fashion, speed and status. Most people want the newest, brightest and fastest. I am an environmental artist who is mindful of how local wild animals coexist with human activities. My great hope is that the animals in my paintings adapt, thrive and continue to grow, and procreate. There can be no obsolescence for wild animals.

4. Stephen Brown Artist Statement: Many of my paintings are of places that are not quite picturesque but rather just are. I'm not interested in heralding the quaint. Having traveled extensively throughout the USA, I've seen many man-made structures that have fallen into decay and I find myself asking: who lived here, why did they choose this place to live and maybe most importantly, why did they leave? My images are a recording of man-made objects that are no longer of value drifting toward a point where they cease to exist except as stories we make up about them and their people.

Biography: Education

Career

Consulting

Famous Artists Schools, Course for Talented Young People BFA Architecture, Massachusetts College of Art & Design Continued Studies, Boston Architectural College Journeyman Plumber, Massachusetts Master Plumber, Massachusetts Master Pipe Fitter, Massachusetts

Design Director for Exhibition Planning, Joseph Wetzel Associates Master planning through implementation of many zoos, aquariums and interpretive museums domestically and internationally

Stephen Brown Design Master planning through implementation of zoo and aquarium exhibits Stephen Brown Mechanical Design and installation of high efficiency heating and cooling systems

5. Lee Collilouri Artist Statement: These recent pieces are forms of organizing entropy which relates to obsolescence. Entropy describes everything descending into chaos, and with these recent pieces I have created a portal that this obsolete energy (whether it's technology, or machinery) can go through. In a way creation comes from obsolescence where there is a moment of functional peace within these "portals", thus organizing the passing energy.

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6. Giti Ganjei Artist Statement: Obsolescence may sound like a negative term but in many cases it could be a path to transformation into a new beginning. My career took a turn when real estate shifted to digital networking, leaving me disconnected from my original approach of face-to-face interactions.

Despite cultural ties to tradition, I remained committed to integrity and client relationships, opting not to embrace digital marketing. Feeling out of place, I chose to pursue my passion for painting, channeling my energy into creating art that reflects my multicultural experiences as a woman. This shift has allowed me to authentically connect with myself and my audience in a meaningful way.

Biography: As an Iranian woman, Giti has an original and moving story to tell. In her early 30's determined to leave Iran, Giti and her husband and their son were able to leave on a perilous journey. She arrived in the US in 1989 as a refugee and quickly built a life for herself and her family. In her long journey as an emigrant with no western cultural background, no language and never worked in her life, she has endured, and survived so many obstacles. She started 2 businesses, raising her family, still holding to her passion for art. In her early 60's, she decided that life has given her an opportunity to follow her passion as an artist and spend more time fulfilling her calling to use her own multicultural experiences, and explore the themes of women and their cultural boundaries and human relationships with each other, discrimination, racial and in social and global settings.

Exhibits Group exhibit at Broomfield Gallery, SOWA, Boston, MA / 2023 Group exhibit at Wedeman Gallery at Lasell College Newton, MA / 2023 Artist of the Month National Association of Women Artists Limited Edition Printed Book Honar, Art from Within / 2023 Group exhibit at Galleries in Seaport Boston, MA / 2023 Group exhibit at Galatea Gallery at SOWA, Boston, MA / 2022 Member of National Association of Women Artist, NAWA / 2020

7. Mary Gillis Artist Statement: The Northern Avenue Bridge was built in 1908. At that time the port of Boston was a beehive of activity. It is a swinging bridge, which pivots to allow tall water traffic to pass through. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1997, at which time its function for water traffic was obsolete. In 2014 the bridge was closed for pedestrians, being deemed too unsafe. Because of its historic and architectural significance, the bridge is going to be restored as a pedestrian walkway between the Fort Point Channel area and downtown. By printing the 'ghost' as a mirror image over the bridge image itself, I have tried to give a feeling of the bridge's long history.

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8. Bob Greene Artist Statement: I'm old enough to remember when fax machines were new and exciting. And when we essentially stopped using them. I do still send and receive a fax now and then – online.

Will "AI" be next? I do get a kick out of using a new and helpful technology tool. Until it's not. Then it's a challenge to wipe personal data and find where to recycle them (if that's possible). So I just keep collecting them – I'm a connoisseur of outdated tech. Of course, digital photography is technology-intensive and there is always new and improved equipment available. How long will I use my "vintage" cameras and peripherals before they become part of the collection gathering dust until (if) I recycle them? I love Boston's Haymarket: a vibrant place to find great deals on produce and other foodstuffs. Many items are near expiration dates, so they wouldn't be sold in supermarkets and might go to waste if not for Haymarket. And... There's still the packaging waste of our food system. What happens to all of the boxes and plastic at the end of the day? This is a rhetorical question. Ultimately with our collective wastefulness, I fear we're shopping toward obsolescence.

Biography: I’m a photographer and digital artist. Photography offers the opportunity to look at length at a moment in time or, alternatively, to look more fully at what stands still, where we typically breeze by.

Usually, I focus on admiring beauty in, at times, surprising places or seeing the commonplace in a new light. For me, a show on “obsolescence” is a prompt to say something different — to focus on what’s out-of-date, no longer in use, wasteful. Yet this is still art. The images I’ve shared were carefully composed, whether quickly on the street or in the studio. I worked on them with the editing software I use to highlight or adjust certain qualities. So, ironically, obsolescence can lead to creativity. I hope, though, that the images will be prompts for the viewer to look at and reflect on our shopping habits and our continual quest for the latest and greatest technology. My degrees are in psychology and human services, and I work as a coach, trainer/facilitator, and organizational consultant. I’ve provided a small amount of pro bono consulting support to UVA and served on the UVA Council of Advisors.

9. John Higgins Artist Statement: In my paintings I endeavor to depict mood and atmosphere by using representational and enhanced images from lived and imagined experience. I use artistic elements such as color, texture, and light to present a visual display that evokes a sense of place or time, often suggestive of the past. In the works I am submitting here, past practices of steam train travel and personal and telephone conversation are experiences that, although once commonplace, have now given way to air and auto travel, and email and text messaging. They remain, however, firmly established as a part of our collective historical experiences.

Biography: My paintings have been exhibited over the past ten years at locations including: Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, Dedham Public Library, Belmont Gallery, Morini Gallery at Mass Arts Center in Mansfield, Spring House in Jamaica Plain, and Christ Church in Needham. I have taken art classes at the Worcester Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Eliot School, and Northeastern University.

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10. Sam Price Artist Statement: The uncanny valley arises from the clash between the familiar and the eerie, revealing our limited grasp of reality. Yet, we unwittingly imbue our creations with this unsettling quality, often unprepared for the repercussions. As of this work’s creation, AAPL, MSFT, AMZN, NVDA, GOOGL, BRK.B, TSLA, and META were the largest S&P 500 index constituents by weight. Being tech or tech-adjacent companies, they are also dependent on cobalt, 70% of which is mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This involves exploitative labor practices, with both children and adults working long hours for slave wages, facing exposure to toxic, radioactive minerals, and the threat of mine collapses. Despite the optics of such practices, digital modernity relies on this labor, leading to a glaring disparity between the benefits of technological progress and the human suffering involved. Consumers and stakeholders are cursed with endemic cognitive dissonance, confronted with their own contributions to perpetuating these unethical supply chains.

Our creations have unprecedented impacts on perception beyond humanity. The Australian Jewel Beetle nearly went extinct after the males mistook a beer bottle's design for the opposite sex, a major manufacturing oversight. This small example pales in comparison to the broader implications of our actions in the psychological vacuum that separates all life. The interconnectedness of our choices and their consequences is a sobering realization.

Biography: Sam is a Boston-based artist who graduated from Cornell with a BFA and Architecture minor. He uses paint, sculpture, and digital media to explore the relationship of perception and creation. By invoking the perpetual human experience of searching for clarity from ambiguity, he honors a universal struggle to build meaning. Sam’s art has been featured in Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Piano Craft Gallery, Miami Art Week, and one of 1stDibs' first cryptoart exhibitions. Additionally, he was accepted into the 2020 Best of SUNY and SUNY Chancellor’s Gallery Exhibitions. Sam was selected for Cornell’s 2020 Anderson Ranch Painting Scholarship, a \art grant, BitBasel’s CryptoArt for Impact and Innovation Challenge, and the 2020 Edith Adams & Walter King Stone Award in recognition of work filled with promise in advance of his thesis year. He had the honor of being selected for the first digital art collection on the moon, contained in a nickel disc aboard the US' first return mission in over 50 years in February 2024. Sam has collaborated with Ponce Neuroscience Lab at Harvard University as part of his thesis exhibition, and continues to partner with their team.

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11. Adriana G. Prat Artist Statement: I create while reflecting on man-made environmental disruption. Massive pollution, including omnipresent plastics and obsolete technologies, global warming, and the urgent need for society to change inspire my works. Obsolescence relates not only to the exterior changing but also the way I approach my evolving art practice. I am originally a painter creating abstract topographies that evoke cellular structures or geographies of lands or oceans, in their constant struggle to survive exploitation and climate change. To use environmentally friendly ways, I now paint on rejected materials: My art process mutated, and now brand-new canvases became obsolete to me. In my art journey, I am also exploring assembling rejected materials. My Disconnected Series speaks about the dichotomy human society experiences, falsely over-connected and over-informed, “thanks” to sophisticated technologies constantly upgraded and obsolescing, yet dramatically challenged to link to one-another in real life, and particularly with what is outside of ourselves: nature and the non-human. In Disconnected I, the (obsolete) earbud cables are cut, and the attempts to connect them are unsuccessful. Poupée I is a metaphor for our frequent blindness to accept our disconnection with the outside world. Working with discarded/obsolete materials is a commentary on the materialistic tendencies human society needs to divorce from to find ecologically meaningful and effective integrity.

Biography: Adriana G. Prat is an academically-trained scientist turned abstract artist and curator on a quest to inspire action for the environmental crisis. Her early passion for nature in her country of birth, Argentina, influenced her to study science, but after moving to the US, a more introspective lifestyle inspired her to become a fervent artist who pushes her practice using repurposed materials to reduce her contribution to the urgent crisis. Adriana has exhibited at galleries, academic institutions, art centers, museums, and alternative spaces, in Argentina, and the US, mostly in the greater Boston area, and in galleries in Reykjavík, Iceland, and London, UK. She is a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) and the Cambridge Art Association; she is founder/curator/member of the i3C (inspiring Change for the Climate Crisis) Artists Group, and a member of the SoWa Artists Guild, Unbound Visual Arts (UVA), and the New England Experimental Group, among others.

12. Allida Warn Artist Statement: Ubiquitous is an adjective that describes seeing something everywhere, so much so that its presence is taken for granted. Dandelions are ubiquitous, they are everywhere, they survive being chopped and mowed, and their deep taproots mean that they also sometimes even survive being uprooted. Plastics are also ubiquitous. They are everywhere, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, and they too endure. Despite promises of recycling, most plastics do not make it to a second life, instead representing an enduring record of extraction, carbon waste, and finally pollution. Recent studies say that microplastics are ubiquitous in both human and animal tissue. While we think about obsolescence mainly in terms of computer technology, obsolescence is also ubiquitous. There are so many things that have one use and are not used again that we don’t even notice them. For example the beautiful silver mylar that makes up these coffee bags.

They were acquired from Café Fixe, a coffee shop in Washington Square in Brookline. The owner, 19

Maks saves them and sends them off by the pallet to be recycled because the town of Brookline does not recycle this kind of mylar. Knowing that they were there, waiting to be harvested, planted the seed of an idea for a project, which has bloomed into these dandelion inspired objects.

Biography: Allida Warn is a socially engaged artist educator whose practice challenges boundaries between genres and materials. She grew up learning to find treasure in other people’s trash at a creative re-use warehouse in her hometown where she had one of her first jobs. Since then she has explored many kinds of non-traditional materials from beaded vases and clothing made of construction materials to giant inflatable structures made out of visqueen and multi-media digital drawings. Much of her work is place-based. She investigates the generative riparian zone at the intersection of humanity and nature wherever she has lived across the United States and in Spain.

13. Andrew Zou Artist Statement: In my work, I explore the themes of obsolescence and abandonment through the lens of discarded objects that surround us — boats, sofas, electrical wiring, buckets, engine gears, and construction site waste. These remnants of once-functional items are powerful symbols of the relentless march of time and the ever-evolving nature of human needs and desires. By bringing these forgotten and overlooked objects into focus, I aim to highlight the transient nature of material possessions and the pervasive waste of resources in our society. Each piece carries a narrative of its past utility and current redundancy, prompting reflection on our consumption habits and the environmental impact of our throwaway culture.

Biography: Andrew Zou was born and raised in Jiangxi Province, China. He lives in Boston, MA where he is a candidate of MFA 2025 in photography at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He has received Anderson Ranch Scholarship in 2024, Graduate Dean’s Scholarship and Graduate Foundation Scholarship from MassArt in 2023. He was a teaching assistant of Visual Language Course in 2023 and Senior Thesis Project in 2024 at MassArt. He is co-teaching Photography in the Digital Age in Fall 2024. His photographic works have been exhibited in Gallery 263 at Cambridge, VanDernoot Gallery at Lesley University, Luohu Museum at Shenzhen, Student Life Gallery at MassArt, and Griffin Museum of Photography at Winchester, MA. His photographs are selected to be published on Vogue Magazine website.

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