New art forms tap into the dream-state

The dream-state has served steadfastly to inspire the art-making impulse since prehistory. Prehistory may not be a correct term, after all, for the prehistoric cave-dwellers who record-ed their dreams of conquest on rock walls were in fact recording history on their own terms before there was such a concept as history. Flash forward to a modern-day society where common sense is a scarce commodity, and one finds that dream-logic trumps so-called rational thought six ways from Sunday.

We can skip over a lot of the long interim in order to get to two Fort Worth-based artists who are tapping the dream-state more formidably than a good many of us have seen lately: Billy Hassell, with a fascinating new exhibit called Tangle approaching at William Campbell Contemporary Art; and Lou Chapman, with a continuing run of showcases for his transformation of a cheap toy camera into a source of otherworldly views.

The opening reception for Hassell’s exhibition, Tangle, will take place at 5 p.m. Dec. 5 at the Campbell Contemporary, 4935 Byers. The show will present nearly a dozen new works, including large-scale paintings and works on paper. Hassell’s familiar studies of birds and wildlife-in-general are naturalistic up to a point — then stylized and reconstructed to reveal a visual conversation through inherent patterns, bold colors, and spatial relationships.

Hassell’s environments straddle the line between nature and hyperbole: Gracefully painted creatures occupy sensational landscapes, often burgeoning on the surreal. The compressed space, exaggerated color, and intense patterns create a dramatic abstraction that binds the various layers and elements. Hassell characterizes the result as “semi-believable.”

As Tangle suggests, these pieces reflect upon complex, often ambiguous relationships and systems. The artist began the series after sketching a man-made garden over several weeks during the growing season. As time elapsed and the garden was left untended, native plants and weeds began to overtake the manicured flora. While nature reclaimed its turf, new birds, bees, butterflies and so forth arrived to feed off the foliage. The end product was a free-form, self-sustaining ecosystem.

And from this “tangle” of weeds, flowers, and animals, a community had developed. The current series expounds on this metamorphosis, examining nature’s tenacity but also serving as a metaphor for the components that make up any community — untidy, often complicated, and always interdependent for survival. Not unlike a dream, that is.

With such imagery, Hassell serves a reminder that beauty takes many forms, and that each element relies upon another. Such seeming chaos, in turn, supports rich communal diversity and its repetitive life-cycles.

Billy Hassell is well represented in Fort Worth amidst an international career. His public-art commissions include mosaics at Fire Station #34 in Fort Worth and at D/FW Airport’s Terminal D. William Campbell Contemporary Art — marking a 35th anniversary, by the way — exhibits consistently provocative works in a variety of media.

Lou Chapman and the Holga camera

The recent exhibition called Metaphors & Dark Corners, at Gallery 414, catches Lou Chapman at a plateau of confident accomplishment in placing his artistic impulses at the mercy of the most unreliable camera known to modern photography: the Holga.

“The Holga is a headstrong co-participant in the creative process,” as Chapman has mentioned. “Changing film is cumbersome and time-consuming. The plastic lens and body are prone to change their effect on the film over time. A light leak may develop unexpectedly. Using the Holga, I get a constant reminder that ultimately, I am not in control.

“I can only capture a reflection of what I think I see through the viewfinder. It is an unveiling of what I am feeling at that moment, a sense of my immediate perception of the energy, light and shapes that my intellect, heart and intuition are interpreting right then, right there.”

The Chinese-made Holga uses medium-format film and creates square negatives. Chapman’s signature format is a 15-inch-square print — the comparatively imposing size proving helpful in transforming the Holga’s erratic focus and chronic light-leaks into elements of composition. (The instrument is the very antithesis of high-tech photography, and more power to it.)

Subsequent exhibitions are imminent. Meanwhile, a look at Chapman’s Web presence is in order: www.louchapmanphotography.com

Michael H. Price’s new graphic novel, Carnival of Souls and Other

Futile Inquiries, is an extended exploration of the dream-state dramatic narrative style. Contact: mprice@bizpress.net