Margarita Buenaventura and Bill Bartee: Subjects of Sacrifice

Margarita Buenaventura and Bill Bartee:
Subjects of Sacrifice

Studio 832

Kathryn Shields

Radiant light from the pristine gallery spills onto the street. A dog mask hangs in each window animating the space. One is the warm rich color of beeswax, the other a deep cocoa brown; they float like indicators of invisible guardians. Behind these masks, Margarita Buenaventura's work resides on the left and Bill Bartee's on the right, coexisting and conversing.

Margarita Buenaventura, Dog Mask, 2005
Silver, silk, beeswax

This is the first installation at Studio 832, a relatively new gallery with a deep, coherent focus. The space itself departs from the conventional white cube with ornately carved floral designs on the white wainscoting, columns and formal architraves. Gallery owner George Sellers has subtly imbued his presence here. Inspired by European galleriesspaces often transformed from previous existencesSellers wanted to create a place with formality and personality, and fortunately, his vision doesn't interrupt the work on view. It gives it something to react to, creating a mutual reverence with the environment.

Sellers asked Buenaventura and Bartee to collaborate for this exhibition, which opened at the time of their one-year anniversary. (It seems fitting to focus on this milestone considering the sacrifices and difficulties weathered during the first year of marriage.) The pair deals with the idea of union as a personal matter while at the same time references ideas that resonate on a universal level. Pendant figures on the left side of the gallery reflect various moods and postures, while solitary figures on the right reinforce an enduring sense of individuality. Unlike previous collaborations, the artists decided against including a performative element because Subjects of Sacrifice is more concerned with the very personal nature of a union than the public ceremony of a wedding.

Sacrificeliterally, to make sacredhas historically been deemed necessary for prosperity in cultures the world over. It is typically a form of exchange between the natural and supernatural worlds, emphasizing union and balance in addition to sustenance. Sacrifices referenced here range from the rituals of daily lifeas in Sleeping Arrangement-Inochi Figuresto actual bloodletting as a tangible and symbolic surrender in Blood Offering. (After the first few weeks of the exhibition, blood was replaced by red seeds, which held equal symbolic significance in ancient Mesoamerican cultures as sources of potential life.)

Each artist made deliberate alterations in their use of materials and process to create work for this show. Buenaventura incorporated clay and beeswaxmaterials Bartee consistently usesin lieu of the ceramic and wood she normally employs, while Bartee created approximately life-sized figures as opposed to the tiny, bird-headed creatures he has previously exhibited. Scale gives his Mud Heads sculptural substance, especially appropriate in this context as a statement about a union, instead of transference with a group of people.

The twelve pairs of figurines in Sleep ArrangementInochi Figures signify the passage of one year, reinforcing the notion of ritual in terms of calendrical cycles. Each relates to one another in distinct ways: some look at each other, some gaze at the same point in space. Others face opposite directions, reflecting quite a bit about potential familial dynamics. The couples are not meant to be portraits of anyone in particular; they relate to the general notion of union whether it's between a man and a woman, two women or two men. The masks they wear signify what we might hide from one other, the different roles people might assume and the power or transformative potential they might hold.

Bill Bartee, Coupled-Inochi Figures, 2005
Red clay, hair, fibers, fabric, leather

A slightly larger pair of figures entitled CoupledInochi Figures hangs on the back wall and reflects the way some partners come to resemble each other over time. The right figure has a clay, bird-shaped head while the left figure wears a mask with the same beaklike shape. Perhaps the protruding belly of the figure on the right has caught its partner unwittingly in the trap of a relationship, or they could be bound together by a sinewy web of happiness.

Across from Coupled is Bartee's Mud Head. The shape of this slablike sculpture of oil-based paraffin wax resembles clay tablets that display the earliest known cuneiform writing. The logographic message it carries is splattered in red clay, reflecting the same process used to form the bird/man silhouette. This solitary figure might at first seem odd in an exhibition devoted to the sacrifices of marriage. Perhaps it relates to Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (1903), in which the poet explains the long period of seclusion necessary to ripen and become something before you can love another person. Alternately, Mud Head might be seen as an icona symbol of unity rather than solitudelike a family crest. The sacrifices made by the artists are not tit for tat. Each contributes and negotiates in various ways to flourish, both as individuals and as a couple.