Isabelle Chiu
Executive Sports Editor
Torrance Art Museum’s newest exhibit, “Solar Flare” burns bright within viewers, exhibiting a diverse range of media in an organized, cohesive manner.
Consisting of nine pieces by contemporary Southern California artists, the exhibition, which aims to reflect “the personal, the psychological and the subjective” of one’s response to their environment, succeeds, accurately displaying characteristics of everyday life.
“Solar Flare” was organized by the Los Angeles based organization Manuel History Machines, featuring artists Sofia Córdova, Daniel Gibson, Elizabeth Folk, Paul Psecador, Heather Rasmussen and Shanna Waddell. The multimedia works include videos, photography and collages.
The works in “Solar Flare” focuses and reflects on the artists’ individual experiences and connects them to address larger issues, globally, politically, or existentially. The larger themes are masked behind playful sensibilities, with crude or awkward moments captured behind the camera.
The sizes of the pieces all differ and most are smaller and on the sides of the gallery room, encouraging viewers to take a closer look at each work. Furthermore, works such as “Touseled” by Folk are interactive, encourages the viewer to come closer, as it requires the viewer to step on a pedal to generate wind, allowing animal hair on the work to flow freely.
The variety of materials used in each piece is eye-catching and interesting, and displays unique qualities about each individual artist. For example, a tablet screen playing a video made by Elizabeth Folk sits in a bag of quinoa, showing that quinoa is important to her because it reminds her of her roots.
Pescador’s film titled “The Vistors: Section B” and Cordova’s film “YUNG NARCISX” followed the theme of “Solar Flare” the best, displaying the artists’ vulnerabilities and senses of self. By displaying these videos in the Dark Room, a unlighted room that only contains one screen, the viewers are able to focus their undivided attention to each piece. Pescador contrasts colorful children’s toys against the background of his house and the desert in the Coachella Valley, showing Pescador’s environment he grew up in and his sense of self through personal objects. His use of sound was creative, using it selectively when needing to emphasize certain sounds such as a toy arm falling on the ground.
“YUNG NARCIX” feels authentic, and accurately displays a person’s self in relation with their self displayed digitally on social media. Córdova’s video is arranged as a collage of a combination of photos and videos playing simultaneously, and she uses snapchat filters and memes to reflect her state of mind. Although six images playing at once is confusing, they are often complimentary, and her piece feels very genuine and true to the theme of “Solar Flare.”
The main piece/face of the exhibit, “VR” by Shanna Waddel is complex, intriguing, and makes a statement rather than being a simple piece of artwork. It displays Waddel’s thoughts on the irony of virtual reality using white chocolate pretzels, goggles, cloth, and a tiny magazine cutout of legs pasted on a background of uneven paint. The various assortment of items is aesthetically pleasing and allows the viewer to see the bigger picture.
Although each piece in “Solar Flare” varies with different aspects of each artist’s personality, they come together, united in the theme of human experience. “Solar Flare” honors each of the artists despite their differences and conveys the depth of range of emotion.
The Torrance Art museum has free admission, and is open Tuesday’s through Saturdays. The Solar Flare art exhibit is opened to the public on Jan. 20 and is open until March 10, and is located in Gallery Two and Dark Room in the Torrance Art Museum at 3320 Civic Center Dr, Torrance, CA 90503.
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