Molly Devlin:"Altered and Assembled"

My thoughts on, Altered and Assembled: The Beat Goes On—New Perspectives
By, Molly Devlin

Through the glass doors of the exhibit I could see that these assemblages were all works that needed a closer look to understand. Instantly I got excited about walking around to the individual displays to see what they were all about and to find ones that were my favorite. The overall appeal for me was the detail; I admired how many of the artist had used aging techniques to capture time. Another aspect that excited me was the use of materials, I like the concept of transforming quirky collected things into something cohesive that makes a statement. I think that hoarding interesting junk goes along with being an artist, we are afraid to throw out something that has potential to be beautiful.
I like the idea of ugly beautiful, probably why I liked the artist Mayra’s pieces “Mini Screaming Mimi” and “Emerging Virago.” The artist took angelic little baby dolls and basically tortured them and put them on display. She played with the idea of something innocent vs. something dark, a type of feeling that appeals to me because it’s a feeling that can make viewers uncomfortable. It’s art you’d put in your child’s bedroom… that is if you wanted your children to eventually grow up and stab you. I’m kidding of course. I simply enjoy when an artist isn’t afraid to scare people, horror can be humorous.
Each artist in the exhibit brought something different to the table, which always makes for a great show. After leaving it a lot of ideas began churning in my head about putting together some assemblage. Each assemblage told a unique story by making certain materials look a certain way. I think I’d like to play around with assembling my own story in a piece, it might be a nice way to step out of a comfort zone, taking risk is healthy for you.