{"id":955,"date":"2009-08-24T13:24:06","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T20:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/08\/robert_yoder_-_not_showing_at\/"},"modified":"2009-08-24T13:24:06","modified_gmt":"2009-08-24T20:24:06","slug":"robert_yoder_-_not_showing_at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/08\/robert_yoder_-_not_showing_at.html","title":{"rendered":"Robert Yoder – more than an exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Yoder<\/a>‘s exhibition at Howard House is a declaration of a frustrated sense of disconnection, both with his work and what he’s seeing from others. <\/p>\n

“I’m not feeling it,” he said last Saturday, cleaning up after a workshop in the gallery.<\/p>\n

By the late 1990s, Yoder’s calligraphic collages made of wood scraps, appropriated street signs and\/or Legos were a certifiable hit in the region and beyond. From clunky materials he created magisterial abstractions, visual symphonies whose sheet music came from castoffs.<\/p>\n

(Union Bridge<\/i>, 2000, wood\/road signs, 48″x48″x2″)<\/p>\n

\"robertyoderorange.jpg\"<\/span>(Aluminum Management<\/i>, painted found wood, 2004, 24″x24″x2″)<\/p>\n

\"robertyodersign.jpg\"<\/span>(Sunset<\/i>, 2005, Lego on wood panel, 24″x24)<\/p>\n

\"robertyoderlego.jpg\"<\/span>Such beginnings lead to substantial careers. Once Yoder had established the form, however, he found he didn’t want to continue to explore variations on its theme.<\/p>\n

Is he another victim of the Pound imperative, make it new<\/i> serving as an excuse for Attention Deficit Disorder? What if Dan Flavin hadn’t stuck with florescent light, Elizabeth Peyton abandoned portraits and Gary Hill walked away from video?<\/p>\n

Not all artists can be as successfully chameleon as Bruce Nauman. Many best serve themselves by mining a single vein. Life is short. Art’s best chance of being long is internal coherence.<\/p>\n

Other Seattle artists have done well improvising off the base Yoder created, including, below, painters Alfred Harris<\/a>….<\/p>\n


\n\"alfredharrisbw.jpg\"<\/span>and Ken Kelly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"kenkellyred.jpg\"<\/span>Meanwhile, Yoder struggled. <\/p>\n

\"robertyodersendme.jpg\"<\/span>Presently
\nhe finds himself thinking along three separate lines: paper collage,
\npainting and sculpture. Examples from each line a wall at Howard House.<\/p>\n

Facing it is a salon-style wall of art he admires, from thrift
\nstore paintings to photos by Wolfgang Tillmans and Sue De Beer as well
\nas paintings by Jim Nutt and Ben Waterman. <\/p>\n

Yoder sits at a
\ntable, the work of friends and heroes at his back and his own work in
\nfront of him, hoping to derive support for what he continues to make. <\/p>\n

On a corner is a video of him dancing by himself. <\/p>\n

\"robertyoderdance.jpg\"<\/span>Is he hoping for divine intervention? The title of his exhibition, residency, collaboration and workshop is, Send Me An Angel<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Maybe he’s his own angel. All three of his options for future work are viable.<\/p>\n

(Eric<\/i>, 2009. Vinyl & collage on paper. 14″x11″)<\/p>\n

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower<\/a> – Dylan Thomas<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"robertyodercollag.jpg\"<\/span>(Untitled<\/i>, 2009, oil\/panel. 14″x11″) Form paralyzed by its field.<\/p>\n

\"robertyoderpaint.jpg\"<\/span>Untitled<\/i>,
\n2009. Forget the white tape at the bottom, which is a makeshift means
\nof covering a black strip. Yoder made this piece during his residency,
\nand it’s one of the best things I’ve seen from him since he rejected
\nhis strong suit. With a hat tip to Fred Sandback<\/a> and Christopher Wilmarth<\/a> as well as the unraveling geometries of his own work, Yoder seems to have come up with a place for glass art to go.<\/p>\n

\"robertyoderglass.jpg\"<\/span>Final workshop Saturday, 1-3:30 p.m. $40. To participate, contact the gallery<\/a>. Send Me An Angel<\/i> ends same day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Yoder‘s exhibition at Howard House is a declaration of a frustrated sense of disconnection, both with his work and what he’s seeing from others. “I’m not feeling it,” he said last Saturday, cleaning up after a workshop in the gallery. By the late 1990s, Yoder’s calligraphic collages made of wood scraps, appropriated street signs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}