By Tyson Gentry
Upon first glance, I am surrounded by warmth as I walk into the Harley Gallery as USC Upstate. Pink and warm white spotlights fill the room full of neutral toned sculptures and photographs. However, as I glance to my left, a sense of unease begins to sink in. I am met with an inversion of the common deer head trophy found throughout the South, and it’s fit with a tiny tablet displaying security footage of myself. I glance up at the ceiling and notice the security camera pointed directly at me, as if in greeting. This first encounter within the gallery is a great summary of all that is encompassed within Pink Noise: surveillance, biology, violence.
Maggie Genoble’s sculptures fuse fragments of the human body with industrial objects in a seamless manner. These fusions, such as I Think I Broke A Nail, combine the soft textures of silicone models of human hands with the industrial, as X-Acto knife claws beat against a TV screen that displays human legs. This sculpture, along with Genoble’s other works in Pink Noise, questions how our connection to the industrial and digital world has reshaped our collective perception of our own bodies and the bodies of others.
Jessica Swank’s work in Pink Noise helps balance the controlled chaos of Genoble’s sculptures by presenting stark representations of the human body distilled into its purest forms in both two and three dimensions. Whether it’s her sculptures or photography, Swank captures extensions of the human body, such as skin, hair, and blood. In My Own Flesh and Blood, silicone cubes imitate the artist’s skin and blood. The playfulness in condensing such complex parts of the human body to essential building blocks begs the question of how often we may manipulate parts of ourselves to fit certain molds. Another standout from Swank in Pink Noise is the photograph What We’re Made Of. In the photograph we see a steel rod lying closely next to a bone. While the objects are clearly very different visually, the similarity of their shape and their proximity to each other in the photograph intuitively makes the viewer feel a logical connection between each specimen’s responsibility to provide structure.
The beauty of this exhibition is in its subtlety. At first, the majority of these pieces feel nonthreatening, even welcoming, but as you spend time gazing upon or walking around each piece, you begin to see the underlying complexities. The world created by Pink Noise is one where technology and industry have fused with flesh. The presentation of this idea makes the viewer feel as though this is all natural. Pink noise is an ambient signal used to aid sleep. The tranquility in both the imagery of the works and the atmosphere in the gallery do not present the stereotypical sense of turmoil found in most depictions of dystopias. Rather, serene as the sound waves of the title, it presents a sterile view of our human condition in which we have agreed to our merging with all things metal and digital.
Check out more of Maggie Genoble’s work here.
Check out more of Jessica Swank’s work here:
Tyson Gentry is a mixed media artist and high school educator residing in Anderson, SC. He enjoys creating, observing, and teaching about all things unconventional.