John Patrick McKenzie & Ward Schumaker: A Field Of Words

Jack Fischer Gallery is pleased to present A Field Of Words featuring the work of John Patrick McKenzie (courtesy of Creativity Explored) and Ward Schumaker. First off, let me admit that I once was a bit leery of text- based work. My initial and naïve point of view was that the words afforded the viewer only one entry point, thereby excluding multiple interpretations. I am pleased to say that I have been cured of this reprehensible idea.

When I am reminded of the important and seminal quote “the medium is the message” by Marshall McLuhan, I understand the use of text as tool:  from the “sloganeering” of Jenny Holzer to the subtle genius and beauty of Ed Ruscha and the stridency of Christopher Wool. Along those “lines,” I realize that often times we remember the words/quotes/slogans by these artists quicker than we remember their names. The text takes on a life of its own, thanks to the manipulations and re-workings of the banal. 

Ward Schumaker has been using text for many years in multiple ways, from the political work that excoriates politicians using their own words, to his paintings of novellas that can read as mini picaresque tales of a curious farm boy. Nor can we forget the near dirge-like intonations that his spiritual chants evoke.

The work by McKenzie involves the writing in cursive of repetitious statements such as “Amy Taub likes apple pie” ….and continues with all the things that Richard, or Marilyn Monroe, or Richard Gere, or someone from the neighborhood likes.  These quotidian phrases seem almost banal, but here the artist uses the words as a tool to open those very words, and makes them into a design, the way a creeping vine might do, we forget what it is that we are looking at, and only feel the impact of something new.  The loops and closed parts of the letters are always filled-in in such a way that we begin to think we are looking at musical notations or a score. In fact, as we read the text, a cadence develops in such a way that we can imagine the music of Phillip Glass or John Cage emanating from the panels. McKenzie works on anything from a car hood to glass bricks, and everything in between.

Interestingly enough, Schumaker’s work also brings to mind Phillip Glass and John Cage. When we engage with the work we fall into a near meditative state due to the harmonies and vibrations evoked by the  paintings.

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