BY CLAIRE RUUD

In print | April 29, 2004

The upcoming exhibit of art major Audrey Chan ’04 loosely narrates the life and death of her cartoon character, the Blob. Experimenting with clay, embroidery, collage, paint and pens to create an ever-evolving story, the exhibit includes a variety of media. A few obsessively worked motifs — soldiers, the lotus flower, swarms of flies, pigeons and the Blob herself — give the viewer a glimpse into the playful but weirdly preoccupied world of the artist.

Before you go, pull out a few old Phoenix issues and read a few of Chan’s cartoons about the Blob. You’ll make the most of her show if you already have a relationship with the character. Chan has spent the year in her studio getting to know the Blob, and each of her works builds on their past together and develops their relationship further.

Chan admits the Blob is partly a self-portrait “through a filter.” But the cartoon also frees her from herself. Many of the details of the Blob’s life are ambiguous to both artist and viewer. Chan is always trying out new media in order to lessen her control over her artistic production and leave room for surprise. A new medium produces new effects and new ideas. It gives the Blob a life of its own. Motifs take on new meanings within different contexts, and the Blob becomes a dynamic, multi-dimensional character in each new medium. Chan thrives on this kind of uncertainty because it leaves room for participation and reinterpretation.

Chan’s work is neurotically self-engrossed. She processes and reprocesses her issues and ideas in form after form. When she doesn’t know what to do with one piece, she starts another. One moment she lightheartedly draws the Blob going shopping, the next moment she carves soldiers into the Blob’s bruised and battered body. Sometimes she takes herself seriously, and sometimes she just plays around. Her art is her way of life.

In this show, it feels like Chan allows us inside her brain. Constantly changing and open to new chapters, totally subjective and never authoritarian, Chan’s art is also clever and thought-provoking. She said it perfectly: “If it’s not egomaniacal, then it’s less meaningful. If my work is more confused, than that’s more honest. I want to maintain that confusion. Don’t let people tell you what to think. Figure out what is your stake in it.”

List Gallery Hours

Hours are Friday through Sunday, 12 – 5 p.m.

Exhibit opens Friday May 7, 4 – 6 p.m.

For Arpita Parikh’s show, opening this Friday, see last week’s edition of the Phoenix.

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