OCMA "Disorderly Conduct" Art Review

Photo: Glenn Kaino's "Learn to Win or You Will Take Losing for Granted"

If we’re living in interesting times as it is said, then by extension creations of that time must be equally interesting. With that in mind, perhaps the present is not so interesting after all.

The Exhibition “Disorderly Conduct” at OCMA is paired against OCMA’s collection show “Art Since the 60’s, California Experiments”. The collection show documents the radical end of Modernism as it twisted and turned its way out of formalism and pushed conceptual concerns to the fore.

The era was challenging. One had to find footing as an artist and as a citizen. Nothing was taken for granted. The test was rigorous.

The “Disorderly” exhibition by contrast knows what art is and knows its era. It’s loud, it’s about lifestyle, and its not so much concerned about ideas. It just wants to assert itself. The viewer is more consumer than beholder. That’s not to say that there aren’t some interesting objects and some good ideas. But, even the best works just add to the din, the scream that pulls on us to look, to buy, and to pay ... attention. Where is the engagement for the viewer beyond the spectacle?

These two exhibitions side by side are like an evening of television, “Entertainment Tonight” followed by “Masterpiece Theater”. I think we are living in a Mannerist era and the “Disorderly” show typifies that style. It is studied, manicured and mannered for an effect. The organic response of Late Modernism was difficult but engaging. The “Disorderly” show leaves me passive, unengaged.

So, what’s so bad about the mannered? Nothing really, as long as you’re just looking for entertainment. Pearl Hsiung’s paintings are fun, bright spray paint and stenciled, large enough to capture you for a moment. Glenn Kaino’s stop-action montaged photos of a confrontation between color-coded individuals is the best work in the show. It’s inventive and more metaphoric than all the other works combined. It gets my vote as the keeper in the show.

The pairing of these two exhibits is actually quite brilliant. The more historical show is still difficult. It still challenges you and makes you active with the ideas and forms. The contemporary exhibit is entertaining but eventually empty of deep issues, save the Kaino piece. Give it a walk through but then cross the hall to spend your time in the permanent collection exhibit.

--A Wonderful Chap