Portland, OR – Bullseye Projects presents Mutual Intelligibility, a group exhibition featuring communication-based works in kiln-glass and mixed media by Helen Lee, Anna Mlasowsky, and Jeffrey Stenbom. Mutual Intelligibility will be on view November 1, 2017 – February 3, 2018
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a continuum of understanding that can exist between speakers of varying dialects or different, but similar, languages. Verbal cues (inflection) and non-verbal conditions (body language or cultural context) bridge the gaps in knowledge, allowing for dialogue across linguistic divides. The works featured in the exhibition explore this aspect of communication, offering complex or deeply personal stories through rich visual confrontations.
Wisconsin-based Helen Lee is known for her use of language throughout her practice. Growing up in a bilingual household, Lee often acted as translator for her grandmother. This experience, inhabiting a space between two cultures, is expressed in works such as OMG (2017), whichconsists of neon characters that comprise the Chinese equivilant of the titular phrase. This playful approach is also seen in Announcement (2015), a video and installation that signals the birth of the artist’s daughter with a vintage heliograph from 1943 (the year of the artist’s mother’s birth).
Anna Mlasowsky’s Rorschach (2014), a wall-sized work of 720 distinct Rorschach tests, was created during a difficult period in the artists’ life. For Mlasowsky, the defunct psychological test became a non-explicit form of communication. “I started creating these prints in the hope that through repetition a pattern would emerge, creating familiarity within the foreign,” says Mlasowsky, “Rorschach became a language and an alphabet of silent signals.”
Through his work, Jeffrey Stenbom communicates his experiences both in and out of the United States Army. “Being wounded…dealing with the pains of combat (both mentally and physically) takes a toll,” says Stenbom, “The experiences I had…particularly in Iraq, shaped who I have become.” Every Year (2017) draws on a 2014 estimate published by the Department of Veteran Affairs that projected that 20 veterans a day commit suicide. Comprised of 7,300 glass dog tags, the iconic military identification symbol, the installation represents an entire year of suicides. Every Year visualizes a number, which can appear small when written or spoken, in a way that is unavoidable, drawing attention to a statistic that might otherwise be forgotten by the beginning of the next news cycle.