BY SARAH BRICAULT

In print | November 15, 2007

In the “Networks and Intersections” exhibit in the List Gallery, you can find everything from organic-looking structures made of pages of a phonebook to paintings that depict the beauty of the plastic construction fence. The works of artists Esmé Thompson, Elizabeth Duffy, Duncan Johnson and Louise Hamlin are on display in this exhibit. Each artist has a dramatically different style, but, according to the gallery’s press release, their pieces all “share an underlying emphasis on pattern, woven grids and linear webs.” In essence, this aptly named exhibit contains the work of artists whose work challenges the distinctions between the manmade and the natural and explores the intersection of the two. This unique exhibition will be on display until Saturday, Dec. 15, and it will be open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Esmé Thompson’s paintings are interesting combinations of vivid, organic patterns and pictures, all of which look as though they could be found in a biology textbook. I kept expecting to see mitochondria or nuclei somewhere in her paintings. There is too much order, too much precision imposed upon the elements of her creations for them to truly appear as biological drawings, but they definitely have an organic feel to them. Thompson’s paintings contain natural patterns, full of curved, flowing lines, separated by straight lines and arranged in rows and columns. Her work explores the intersection between the order that man imposes upon his surroundings and the order that has come to exist naturally.

Do you remember when you were little and you felt that incredible desire to just make something? You would grab a pile of straws or plastic cups or sheets of construction paper and just let art happen. Elizabeth Duffy’s art conveys that same freedom of artistic expression. She forgoes typical mediums for the childhood favorites of wax paper, straws and even the pages of a telephone book to create her art. In each piece, these man-made mediums are intricately combined to form distinct patterns that startle you with their simple beauty and natural feel.

One piece, for example, appears at first glance to be an organic structure — perhaps a fossilized tree trunk or a wooden carving. It is not until you are standing right next to it that you can see it is composed of innumerable excerpts from a telephone book, painstakingly combined to form this beautiful, organic-looking structure. Duffy uses simple materials and a simple style to form her incredibly intricate pieces of art; art whose complexity you can best appreciate first-hand.

Where Duffy’s art reminds us of our childhood crafts, Duncan Johnson’s sculptures bring us back to those days of wooden blocks, Legos and secret forts in the forest. His pieces capture the intersection between manmade structure and natural being. One of Johnson’s pieces is like no structure man has ever created. Its seemingly random nature evokes the image of a tree or a bush, but its deliberate right angles give it the distinct air of a manmade construction.

Johnson’s other sculptures are likewise ambiguous, calling forth the imagination of viewers to determine what they could be. Could it represent a structure that will be built in the future? Could it be a species of tree that has yet to be discovered? Johnson’s structures, created from wood and pigment, all appeal to the imagination with their natural beauty and manmade precision.

Plastic fences and nets have become important to our society and can be seen in many places. However, they are usually perceived as ugly, unwanted additions to the natural scene. Louise Hamlin’s art, on the other hand, explores the beauty of the relationship between these manmade nets and fences and their natural surroundings. Hamlin draws our attention to the way the vibrant colors of a construction fence find a somber contrast in the soft gray and blue hues of nearby stones. She shows us how the sunlight creates networks of shadowed lines that stretch and curve upon the rough edges or smooth sides of various rocks. In essence, her art depicts the intersection between the man-made and the natural and shows us the beauty of such a relationship.

This display is a wonderfully unique exhibition that explores the ambiguities of distinctions that we often take to be concrete and definite.

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