January 15 – April 2, 2011

Formed in 2006 in Austin, Texas, Okay Mountain collective is comprised of artists Sterling Allen, Tim Brown, Peat Duggins, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, Ryan Hennessee, Josh Rios, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Michael Sieben, and Corkey Sinks.  Their exhibition at Blaffer, as described by the artists, explores the methods and rituals held in common by otherwise isolated groups—from followers of self-help messiahs to fundamentalist cults to Fortune 500 companies—who “employ a combination of initiation, insider/outsider mentality, esoteric language, and a hierarchy of progressive advancement to inspire a streamlined, new identity that supersedes the complexities of everyday existence.”

For their Houston debut, the artist collective has created a series of discreet sculptures enveloped by lights, images, and sound. The colored lights of the totem-like Dream Machine spill out of emoticons that feature different variations on the graphic theme of Okay Mountain’s logo, a smiley face inscribed in a triangle. Spinning around and around, it cast its hypnotic and dizzying spell as if to induce a state of trance. Trust Staircase dominates the gallery with its massive ascending presence leading nowhere. Covered by glowing “coals,” each illuminated step emits an inspirational directive to be absorbed and followed on the viewer’s mental climb into an altered state of consciousness. The mattress placed on the ground behind the stair’s high point suggests a soft and comforting landing to the leap of faith required by the journey into cult mentality—or does it refer to a rude awakening? At the other end of the gallery, the sculpture Bunk Beds offers a false image of nightly rest, with each bed equipped with pillows, sheets, blankets, and soothing vistas of a televised island paradise but devoid of the restful comfort of mattresses. One-way mirrors inserted at the head of the beds expose the potential sleeper to peering eyes from behind the structure and the backside reveals further possibilities of imposition. The exposed switches allow for the lights and monitors in the bunk beds to be controlled not from within but from a vantage point that permits the observation of the occupant and the adjustment of his environment from outside. Thus stripped from privacy and control, the implied occupant is subjected to voyeurism and manipulation.  Bleachers invite the viewer to watch Instructional Video, featuring the artists and hired actors demonstrating guidelines to handling everything from how to administer medical assistance to assembling furniture to how to do dishes. The corporate graphics, generic setting, clunky acting and robot-like delivery of the instructions in the voice-overs add to the story of depersonalization at the core of this exhibition.  

The exhibition is organized by Blaffer director and chief curator Claudia Schmuckli, and marks the second installment of the museum’s newly established project series First Take.

Related links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/arts/design/20galleries-003.html?_r=2&ref=design

First Take: Okay Mountain is organized by Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. The exhibition is made possible, in part, by The Cecil Amelia Blaffer von Furstenberg Endowment for Exhibitions and Programs, Houston Endowment Inc., and Arturo Palacios.