Wednesday, January 22, 1997
ART:
Coffeehouse gives art students like Josh Dunn a chance to
display their workBy Amanda Miller
Daily Bruin Contributor
Northern Lights, the relatively new coffee shop in North Campus,
now offers more than cappuccinos, soups and sandwiches. Thanks to
UCLA’s Cultural Affairs Committee, monthly displays of student art
gives students a chance to experience the avant garde during those
between-class breaks.
"We wanted to make the atmosphere in Northern Lights warmer,
instead of just having bare white walls," says Amy Burnham, who
heads the art division of the Cultural Affairs Committee. "Also, we
chose Northern Lights because it is near the art department. That
way students who don’t make it to Kerckhoff, who don’t go down
Bruin Walk a lot, can still enjoy art on campus."
Josh Dunn, a first-year art student, seized this opportunity to
express his imagination and creativity. Several of Dunn’s
multi-media paintings decorate the walls of Northern Lights. Also,
an overlapping formation, hundreds of post-it notes cling to the
wall over the warm fireplace.
Dunn communicates artistically through a variety of techniques
and inspirations. Using collage, chalk, pastel and ink pens, Dunn’s
work reflects his perceptions and experiences as a developing
artist, who at times sees himself on the brink of reality.
"I sometimes feel I have difficulty functioning in normal
reality. What I have to say, people will think I’m either boring or
crazy," Dunn says. But it’s hard to see the articulate freshman as
boring. Dunn adeptly discusses quantum physics, concepts of reality
and wave particle duality  hardly run-of-the-mill
conversation topics. On the other side of the experience spectrum,
he recalls one night’s adventure in West Hollywood while decorated
in neon pink and a barbed wire suit. Variety and unorthodoxy are
integral to Dunn’s lifestyle as well as his artistic style.
Dunn describes one of his pieces, titled "Burned Bridges," as
"soul puke." The inspiration for this visceral collage came when
Dunn was involved in the underground music scene. Some of Dunn’s
observations come from his past experiences with drug use. While
using a variety of drugs, Dunn observed the political side of such
an alternative crowd. "I surrendered a good portion of my life back
then to living with shitty people. They were unintelligent and
unimaginative."
Dunn recalls his moments of artistic inspiration in an
emotionally difficult time. "It was like I was trying to hurt the
picture … At that time, the things that I couldn’t do to people,
I would do to my art," he says.
Such experiences inspired his artistic incorporation of a
Cro-Magnon man picture from National Geographic, which illustrates
his frustration with group mentality. In reaction, black chalk
bleeds in cutting and twisting lines across the paper. The dark
colors, the smattering of mud and grass at the base of the picture
and the ephemeral vision of a skull hologram layered on Dunn’s
canvas all strive to reveal the anguish of the human condition.
In another piece Dunn calls "Emaciated Boy in Theme Park
Heaven," he juxtaposes the illusion of a fantasy life with the
unappealing horrors of reality. A perfect and ultimately carefree
world represented by Magic Mountain and Disneyland brochure
clippings contrasts with the stark image of a starving emaciated
child.
"I wanted to create stuff that looks like a Nirvana song," Dunn
explains of the piece.
In a technique reminiscent of Cubism, Dunn says one piece sums
up his existence at that time. Issues of self-confidence and
paranoia permeate the picture and Dunn further points out that
everyone else is represented "as simple people, simple shapes with
closed minds." Dozens of red eyes stare at an abstract version of
himself  alone amidst a world of misunderstanding.
The interactive nature of the post-it note creation, however,
promotes anything but isolation. The observer can take the few
words on each note as separate parts with inherent value in and of
themselves or combine them and find meaning by connecting the words
to find meaning as a whole.
This is part of Dunn’s desire to vary from the typical coffee
shop art scene. "So much art has become about bullshit coffee shop
talk. Trite formulas about the human experience. I just wanted to
compile all these different layers of reality and see if they made
sense together. I wanted to put time into it, create something
organic that grew of its own accord," Dunn says.
In the post-it note creation, which Dunn created with the help
of three close friends, he explores human dynamics. Although clear
connections are difficult to decipher, a lot of the notes were
created in direct response to other notes. The pale yellow papers
read random comments like, "Punk Rock," "Your shoes need to be
shined," "Free Muffins," (which Dunn and friends were given while
working on the project) and "Violation equals insight."
"You will eventually be able to connect them in some fashion
that makes sense to you," Dunn says. "That’s why I used so many
post-its. There’s no chance that someone won’t get something out of
it."
With the accessibility of the Northern Lights location, it is no
wonder that he emphasizes, "Remember, my art is all about YOU."
Art: Northern Lights student art exhibits will rotate monthly
and will include the work of as many artists as will fit in the
space allotted. For more information contact Ann or Amy at Cultural
Affairs (310)825-6564.