Rollin Beamish raleigh7@hotmail.com
T:
0151-17584270 (country code 49)
Permanent Address:
164
Logan Ave.
Westerville
OH, 43081
Current
residence:
Silbersteinstr. 102
2.OG
(rechts)
12051
Berlin, Germany.
The
absurdity of painting in relation to typical productive or pragmatic activity
as defined particularly by capitalistic or socialistic values is something I
take very seriously. This absurdity is not solely defined by painting's
inherent uselessness; additionally, it is an activity which traditionally and
conventionally "speaks" from a very individual position, but that
very individuality must be considered in terms of a communal recognition of
individual expression or behavior. Painting can be said to be very self
defeating, to be resisting structures that it relies upon, structures that make
its very existence possible. In many activities this would comprise an
untenable position, but this self criticism paired with a surprising amount of
cultural importance can make painting a site of what I like to call muted
resistance. For myself, painting, and this could be said of any work I enjoy,
can operate as an "image apart"; something which taps into and relies
upon our broader communicative practices, yet retains a certain idiosyncrasy
which cannot be easily translated. In a way, it has the potential for an
"instantaneous duration"; something which can be received in a flash,
but perhaps never digested and certainly never transmitted so quickly.
For
this work in particular I'm using the problematics of
the traditional support structures of painting quite literally. The images are
resisting and fragmenting, but are still contextually and physically reliant
upon the materials through which they are formed. Canvas and stretcher become
more prominent stars in this dramatization. I feel like I want to make a force-field;
to communicate without object or word, and to make an image appear with no
perceivable physical or projective source. Images are created through memory
and compositional and color choices are made intuitively. I feel it is somehow
important for me to operate from a position of a sort of blindness in my work,
to further live with the conventions and systems which are the source of my
uneasiness while attempting, quietly, to resist.
As
Americans, we live in a world veiled by lifestyle, in which our definition of
totality; that un-namable completeness, the whole for which we strive, is
symbolically fulfilled by the endless array of “prosthetics” that mass culture
is more than willing to provide us. For us, the notions of need and desire are
so removed from any literal physical necessity they are rendered surreal in the
extreme. Indeed, we are living in virtual reality (the “super real“), in which
the erection and maintenance of a perception of the world in which we live and
our status within it has almost fully supplanted our own physical response to
stimuli which occur, often literally, right beneath our noses. We are weaned,
live, think and dream through this final frontier of information projection.
These tendencies and technologies have shrunk the world, dizzyingly, down to a
fraction of its former grandeur. The furthest reaches are now flung into our
audio-visual and intellectual back yards.
Is everything I'm experiencing through these
projections real?
It might as well be, since this technology has
formed the basis of my education and where
I look to when in need of understanding.
Is there a threat?
Quite possibly, since this information and
these movements may undermine the fragile web
of complacency which has been woven around me. The structure of reality, as I understand it, may unravel.
Whereas
some in the world may, quite literally, be facing annihilation, the threat we
immediately face seems to revolve around the diminishing of a level of status,
the re-structuring of comfort and the re-definition of concepts like “need”,
“utility”, and “desire”. To what extent have our prostheses become an
inseparable aspect of our lives? Could we survive without them? Can we learn to
imagine ourselves both with and beyond our precious symbolic order? To what
extent are we slaves to it? When laid bare, what are we and what do we do? Are we more than corpulent amputees
and flying bunkers?
Since
we seem to live in a culture which values highly an extremely skewed and
surreal sense of pragmatism, in which the generation of capital in whatever
form (even real or not as recent corporate activity has shown us) is deemed
“useful”, painting strikes me as just the thing to do. It is highly excessive
behavior, at least in terms of our own cultural pragmatism, and yet it retains
a strong, if absurd, level of cultural status. In addition to my own visceral
satisfaction in working with these materials, painting acts as an effective
springboard with which I can meditate upon my perceptions of our culture and my
place within them. It is an interesting compromise between image culture and
its phantasmagoric power, and a strong physical and tactile manipulation. With
this work, I’m attempting, in some respect, to re-visualize my perceptions of
ourselves and our environment. I try to re-imagine myself as I would appear as
an ideal symbolization of my actual self. The environments through which these
figurative fragments cascade are similar projections. To that end, it could be
said that I’m painting in an entirely figurative manner, it’s just that I’m not
entirely convinced that we’re living on solid ideological terra-firma. With
that in mind, these works represent a few meditations on the present situation.
Re-structuring is both healthy and inevitable. What I’m wondering is, when the
breaking point comes, will we have the mental and emotional fortitude to
culturally survive it?
Education
MFA Ohio University, Athens,
Ohio. major: painting, 2004.
BFA
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. major: painting, 2000.
International Travel and Study Experience
2005-06: Residency in Berlin, Germany through the German-American
Fulbright Commission.
2002 Summer: Study of painting and art history in London, England.
Independent Study and travel in Great Britain, Ireland
and Germany.
2000-2001: Travel and independent
study within Great Britain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands,
Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic. Study of the German language at the Goethe Institut Schwaebisch Hall,
Germany.
1999: Travel and independent study
within Germany and Italy. Study aided by
and affiliated with the Kunstseminar Freie Hochschule Metzingen, Metzingen, Germany. (Now Kunsthochschule
Schwäbisch Hall, Schwäbisch
Hall, Germany.)
Teaching Experience
2004-05: Visiting Professor of
Painting and Drawing, University of Missouri - Columbia, Columbia,
MO.
2004: Assistant instructor for
intermediate and advanced undergraduate painting, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
2003: Instructor, Foundation Drawing,
Ohio University, Athens, OH.
Instructor, Foundation
Concepts, Ohio university, Athens, OH.
2002:
Instructor, Foundation Drawing, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
Assistant instructor for beginning undergraduate painting, Ohio
University, Athens, OH.
Awards, Honors
2005-06: Fulbright Stipendium, Institute for International Education,
New York, NY.
2004: Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA
Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York, NY.
2003: Grace/Foster graduate student
scholarship, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
2002: Ohio University travel grant,
Ohio University, Athens, OH.
2000: John Paul Wrobbel
painting prize, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH.
1995: Excellence Scholarship,
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH.
Solo Exhibitions
2005: "Alive
in the fracture, dreaming of neverwonderland",
Semantics Gallery, Cincinnati,
OH.
"All of this happened
when we were asleep," Mahan Gallery, Columbus, OH.
Exhibitions
2006: "Beauty,
Intensity, The Sublime", group exhibition, Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, MI.
"The Joan Mitchell
Foundation 2004-05 MFA Grant Recipients", group exhibition,
CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY.
2005: "Visiting
Faculty Exhibition", Bighham Gallery, University
of Missouri, Columbia, Columbia, MO.
2004: “Big Dumb Inactive Meat
Reaction”, Majestic Galleries, Nelsonville OH.
“Group Show”, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH.
“Invitational”, Majestic
Galleries, Nelsonville, OH.
2003: “Ohio
Art League Annual Fall Juried Exhibition”, Juror: Helen Molesworth,
curator: Wexner
Center, Columbus, OH. Fort Hayes Gallery, Columbus, OH.
“Already Played”, Schopf Gallery on Lake, Chicago, IL.
“Icon”, Ohio University Seigfred Gallery, Athens, OH.
2002: “Drawings”,
Ridges Gallery, Athens, OH.
“First Day, First Year”,
Ridges Gallery, Athens, OH.
2000: “Recent
BFA Graduates”,
BK Smith Gallery, Lake Erie College,
Painesville, OH.
“Collaborations”, Coffeehouse
Gallery, Cleveland, OH.
“Coffeehouse Show”,
Coffeehouse Gallery, Cleveland, OH.
“Cadavre
Exquise”, Coffeehouse Gallery, Cleveland, OH.
“After Skool
Speshal”, Coffeehouse Gallery, Cleveland, OH.
1999: “Two
Illustrators, A Fiber Man, A Complete Bastard and Bruce”, Coffeehouse, Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
Other Experience
2004: Visiting Artist and
Lecturer: Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.
2000: Organizational
Committee Member, 54th annual Student Independent Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH.
1999-2000: First Chairperson, Student
Activities Committee, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland,
OH.