Dates
Mar 19 thru Apr 7 (by appt.)Walking into the little room with walls made of old wooden fence pieces on a raised platform that is the centerpiece of Joshua Goode’s new installation “What the Thunder Said” at Guerilla Arts, you can’t overcome a feeling of claustrophobia. You are taken out of the inside of the gallery and placed in a new interior space, one that forces you to get uncomfortably close to the plaster and gold foil human form, the size of a young girl, that is lying on an dusty old children’s mattress at the center of the room. The figure is crimpled and shriveled, and there is a crude hole around her stomach area where plastic tubing hangs out. When I saw Goode’s work he was in the midst of installing his show for its opening this Friday, March 19, and he explained the tubes will eventually be connected to a ceiling fan made out of old fence posts that will be hung above the bed, further obstructing your sense of free airspace inside the little room.
Outside the hospital room-tomb-shack structure, Goode is covering up the white gallery walls Guerilla Arts recently built in their rundown space on N. Haskell with black-toned paintings that, he explains, reference Egyptian hieroglyphics.
“I’m dealing with a lot of funerary ideas, like ideas of tombs, specifically on the walls,” Goode said. “I’m trying to make it very cryptic. It talks about the struggles of the roots of spirituality and where that comes from across all religions and finding those sacred objects that have power.”
The work specifically references his own memories of his ill sister, and the images and objects are very personal. They include his sister’s toys and even Goode’s own hair on the figure. The personal objects are intended to obscure the experience of the stranger visiting the exhibition.
“There will be these absurd things in here, and people will not be quite sure what they are, which I like,” Goode said. “It is kind of like an archeological dig. You have all these little codes and you try to decipher it. I like people putting their own narratives to the story.”
The exhibition is haunting and immediately arresting, but what is notable is the sense that there are few places in Dallas that would show this kind of work. It is not gallery work – it is not commodifiable. It might work in one of Dallas non-profit spaces, like the Dallas Contemporary or the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, but those organizations usually show established or out-of-town artists. Until now, Goode has shown his installations in local college galleries, or in other cities: New York, Boston, and Shanghai. But what Dallas hasn’t had is an independent alternative art space. As a result, there is a hole in the local scene. There is no place where young artists can hone their craft, try big work, experiment, and grow. Guerilla Arts’ young director Patrick Short explained that if an artist graduated from a local university, or moved back to Dallas after school, the city’s art scene would offer very few opportunities for that artist to continue to work and hone their craft.
“There really is zero support for emerging contemporary artists in Dallas,” Short said. “I get beat down all the time for saying that, but I don’t think of a 35-year-old as an emerging artist. Some people consider supporting an artist as showing someone [in a gallery]. But there’s nothing here that fosters an artistic community that’s not at a certain age group and stage of career.”
Short sees Guerilla Arts as a way of continuing the sense of community and camaraderie that exists in undergraduate and graduate art programs. Until now, Goode added, ambitious and promising artist graduates from local universities go to New York, Boston, or Los Angeles to find this kind of opportunity to show their work. Maybe they come back when they are more established, maybe not.
Short is wiry and energetic. He wears a jeans and a sleeveless white undershirt that reveals tattoos on his arms and neck. When he talks, he is emphatic and passionate. He doesn’t mince words, he isn’t polite, and he is quick to point fingers at the local arts scene. What makes Short such a force is that he is voicing criticism that has been waiting for a spokesperson. The Dallas scene is too gallery-centric, he says. It relies too much on imported art. The money in this town goes to institutions, often too conservative in their exhibitions or uninspired.
And yet, despite the need, Guerilla Arts was founded more because of its location than any master plan Short had for injecting new life into the local scene. He passed by the vacant and rundown building on N. Haskell everyday and finally called the number on the “for lease” sign. He secured free rent for a year on a six year lease in exchange for cleaning out the building. The previous tenants were members of a Vietnam Veterans Biker Gang who were squatting in the space. The landlord couldn’t evict them because of Texas squatter laws, so he just allowed the roof to leak until it became too unpleasant for the bikers to stay there. That meant that when Short got in the building it was mess: rotting wood, broken windows, an Africanized bee nest, trash and debris everywhere. As we walked through the upstairs rooms, which Short said will eventually be used as the director’s apartment as well as artist studios, he picked up rocks off the floor that had been thrown through the windows overnight.
In short, it is everything a space called “Guerilla Arts” would hope to be: raw, unfinished, dingy, and inspiring. Eventually one of the rooms downstairs will be split into resident artists studios, Short said, and young artists can use the space for free in exchange for finishing out the building, teaching classes, and organizing other events at Guerilla Arts. Think of Guerilla Arts as an incubator to nurture young talent, to give them a place to experiment in a gallery setting, try working on larger projects, and, importantly, meet other artists. To this end, Short hopes to eventually have programming seven days a week, including classes, screenings, and artist mixers. As Short imagines it, Guerilla Arts will be mixture of an artist-run gallery, an artist residency, an arts education center, a home base of an artists collective, and a club house for young artists in the local scene.
Short is a reluctant director. He said he eventually wants to go back to grad school and pass the reigns of Guerilla Arts to someone else. But right now he is running the organization out of whatever spare change he finds in his pocket – and that’s not much. Still, three exhibitions into its existence, it is remarkable what the organization has been able to accomplish despite its meager funding. And over the course of the next year, Short hopes they can prove themselves in the eyes of local arts backers as a necessary ingredient to the growing local scene. It is a difficult task: to convince the establishment to back something guerilla, to hand their dollars to a young and passionate artist who has been telling them they aren’t good supporters of the local scene. But if the work that shows at Guerilla Arts continues to be as engaging, provocative, and moving as Joshua Goode’s current installation, then Short should have no trouble just allowing the quality of the art to speak for the authenticity of his vision.
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15 comments
FINALLY
I’ve been to the space at GuerillaArts multiple times and have seen the amount of work Short and company have put into this building. He may seem like a reluctant director, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that from the amazing amount of progress and work Guerilla arts has put into their building.
It hurts to hear a lot of criticism about the Dallas art scene, but it’s true that it needs some new life and needs to put risk taking at the forefront of its priorities.
I can’t wait to see GuerillaArts’ deliver on it’s promise of supporting the new this Friday night!
Keep up the good work!
The events and openings I have attended at GuerrillaArts have been nothing short of outrageous. The artists as well as the art have been accessible and interactive. I have never experienced art in this way and that is what it has been an experience not a “show”.
The raw, unfinished gallery is the perfect space for raw, edging, up and coming artists. The artists I have had the pleasure of meeting are tremendously grateful to have a space and wirey, energetic director to support and nurture their talents.
GuerillaArts is a bold project and one that many people will distance themselves from out of fear of being alienated by the mainstream art scene. Passionate artists and those who love artists will love this project and the opportunities it will provide for the artists to create and for those of us who are not artists to be a part of what they are creating.
Dallas is in need of a space like this! and even though it comes as a slight detriment to its director during the start of such an undertaking it is sure to yield incredible profit for both the Dallas Arts community and those who choose to be apart of it – especially if the future work holds up to the standard Goode sets in this coming exhibition. All the best!
This will be the next big thing in Dallas if the community will open up to it. I’m suprised that the big backers haven’t shown a greater interest in this project yet. One need only meet Mr. Short to see that he has the passion and drive to make this work. The only way a project like this wouldn’t take off is if Dallas fails to let it take off.
Thanks so much for all the support everyone!
The show opens this Friday night from 7-9pm and we can’t wait to see everyone.
Check out the Facebook event for the opening to see some further pictures of Joshua’s installation!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=348818464108
It’s nice to see Dallas art innovating and exploring instead of just tagging along with whatever is happening in New York or LA. I look forward to seeing Goode’s new exhibition. It promises to be the kind of gutsy, significant work that can attract national attention and promote a more vital art scene in Dallas.
I have been waiting for something to be written about guerilla arts for what feels like ages. The first time I met Patrick I saw the light in his eyes & knew that something exciting was behind them. Upon going to the building, I saw the character & the possibilities. I am so impressed with Patrick and the extensive work he has put into this.
I understand he may seem brash at times but that’s only because of his passion and his vision for GuerillaArts. As someone who has been in the Dallas arts scene their whole life, I completely understand his thoughts. Dallas needed somewhere to show emerging artists, let them sharpen their axes, and teach the community–and the fact that it’s all for free is absolutly breathtaking. I have seen enough Monets and Moores to last a lifetime and GuerillaArts has shown me a lot of other avenues that are out there that I was had been blind to because of the ever strong shine of masters’ works around the city.
I am so excited for this show & cannot wait to continue to support GuerillaArts for YEARS to come.
I can’t wait to see what Mr. Short and Guerilla Arts does next. They’re blazing new ground in the limited art world in Dallas. To truly understand the raw innovation behind Guerilla Arts, talk to Patrick Short for two minutes and you’ll be convinced.
In all honesty the work isn’t very memorable. I don’t get the love fest for something so mediocre.
That’s funny Dabby! Because we haven’t even opened the show yet and just finished the install last night and have since blacked out the windows…so there’s no possible way for you to have even seen the show yet! =)
But we do open tonight from 7-9pm, and we would love for you to come check out Josh’s installation!
What I meant was that the “work” that has been done by Guerrilla Arts in the past is mediocre and irrelevant. I am for community arts just not for an abrasive holier than thou attitude.
Dabby, I suggest you come by Josh’s show, I will be gallery sitting every saturday, excluding tomorrow, until it comes down the first weekend in April. I would love to talk with you and find out where you feel we are being irrelevant.
I can’t wait to see what happens with Guerilla Arts. I’m originally from St. Louis, MO, and every artistic person I know there has left it for a coastal metropolis.
I love this and hope GA gets the support to keep it up!
Dabby, pointing out that there needs to be improvement in the Dallas art scene that will benefit all emerging, contemporary artists in the area is not a “holier than thou” mentality. Dallas, compared to every other major city in america, and a lot of minor ones, is oddly void of resources for emerging artists- especially in the way of supporting their making and showing work. There are no alternative spaces. People need to stop feeling threatened, defensive and judgmental about what we are doing and come by and experience it and feel the benefit. The opening on Friday was fantastic, and the work Joshua delivered is incredibly powerful, and I’m sorry you missed it.
Congratulations on the success! Joshua’s recent show was all of the things good art should be. I found it intellectually honest, brutal, and harrowing and enjoyed seeing his vision play out in this space. As a young artist working in Dallas, I have relished seeing the opportunities the gallery has given some emerging artists. I don’t sense a “holier than thou” attitude about Guerilla Arts and think Dallas would do well to welcome more diverse opinions on the matter. As for the negativity in the thread, remember what Warhol said: “Don’t read what they say about you, just measure it in inches.” Compared to all of the other silly ideas in the art world, why waste your time complaining about a space that seeks such diversity?”