ArtSeen
Amanda Guest
Reworking
Kristen Fredrickson

The temptation of complacency in making art is nearly irresistible, particularly when one attains a modicum of success with one’s work. It is always tempting at such times to fall back on technical skills or ideas of what art should be, to substitute these for the uncomfortable, uncontrollable search that is the actual process of art making. Amanda Guest’s show Reworking offers much work that is obviously the product of the latter search. It is therefore frustrating to see in some of her most recent work, a touch of the former complacency.
One striking feature of the show is the marked strength of the pieces Guest returned to work on over an extended period of time. These pieces date back as far as the late 1990s. Perhaps the strongest among them is "White on Black 2," begun in 1997 and finished in 2004. Its composition is roughly centered in a vertical strip along the upright rectangle of the paper’s black, handmade surface. Delicately sewn red and white thread defines its linear structure. A slice of pristine white paper fits snugly into this gentle armature. A twisting vine of red and white thread trails off bottom center. It makes me think of a swing or a lawn chair. Somehow Guest has imparted a sense of outdoor atmosphere to this adamantly surface-oriented piece.
"Breath Again," also begun in 1997 and completed in 2004, is equally intimate, equally strong. A simple grid embroidered on white muslin forms its composition. The edges of the needlework end flush with the beginning of the awkward stretcher bars visible through the thin muslin. This subtle effect unifies the composition and opposes the rough structure of the piece to its delicate needlework.
It is hard not to assume that the strength of "White on Black 2" and "Breath Again" is linked to their development over a period of years. One imagines that the artist’s growth over time is embodied in the work, lending it a connection to lived experience with an accompanying vitality. These pieces could not have been planned.
The same cannot be said of Guest’s Silk Square series, executed in 2004. These pieces, made by sewing into stretched quilted fabric, are slick, accomplished, and predictable. In each, Guest interrupts the grid of the quilted surface by inlaying a square swatch of fabric from which she improvises needlework form—here a curvilinear abstraction, there a chair. These pieces appear to have been largely thought out in advance and, in an art of abstract intuition such as Guest’s, are proportionally staid.
The work in Kristen Fredrickson’s downstairs project room reveals that time spent is not the primary issue for Guest. "White on Red," numbers 2, 8, and 9, show that the artist can complete a successful piece in a single year. Apparently, the dilemma involves willingness to grapple with the uncertainty of seeking form consummate to lived experience, a struggle in which the best of Guest’s art inheres.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

Dara Birnbaum’s Note(s): Work(ing) Process(es) Re: Concerns (That Take On/Deal With)
By Jennie WaldowDEC 21-JAN 22 | Art Books
Materially detached from Birnbaums finished products, her working documents chart the theoretical motivations behind each piece, along with the novel technical solutions she devised to translate thorny concepts into external space. While this is not a publication for the casual reader, its complexity and resolute physical presence dovetail with the concerns of Birnbaums body of work, linking means and ends.

Grace Notes: Pam Tanowitz and Simone Dinnerstein’s New Work for Goldberg Variations
By Rachel StoneFEB 2020 | Dance
The ushers at the New York City premiere of choreographer Pam Tanowitz and pianist Simone Dinnersteins New Work for Goldberg Variations at The Joyce Theater warn me that the program is 75 minutes75 minutes!with no intermission. Its possible they have to tell me this, but either way, the length of Bachs Goldberg Variations (which, apocrypha alleges, he composed in 1741 as an anti-Scheherazade to help an insomniac count finally sleep) intimidates.
Looking Back, and Forward, as Ma-Yi Celebrates 30 Years of Innovative Work
By Billy McEnteeMAR 2020 | Theater
The Obie and Lucille Lortel award-winning theater company started out in 1989 producing solely the work of Filipino American writers; while that has evolved, so has the theaters definition of what a Ma-Yi play is. And thats a strength: in a company whose ethos and blessings are fortified by its creators, each new playwright brings with themto Ma-Yis numerous productions and artistic programstheir own world and experiences to expand and delight the companys evolving landscape of thought-provoking, envelope-pushing American plays.
Robert Irwin: New Work
By Robert C. MorganMAY 2022 | ArtSeen
Here I am reminded of the writer Vladimir Nabokovs modestly controversial definition of art as precision in contrast to science, which he described as intuition. In the case of Irwin, however, the perceptual aspect found in recent works holds a certain balance between the two: here precision and intuition come together.