Jordan Sullivan: A Temporary Place

A Temporary Place features work by Jordan Sullivan (BFA 2005) and Alexandre Rosa. Sullivan, born in Houston and now living in New York, creates photographs, map collages and sculptures influenced by the landscape and culture of the Southwest. The photographic images of the New Mexico landscape explore impressions that human habitats, both contemporary and historical, leave in an arid and rocky landscape. The hazy images convey a sense of abandonment when confronted with the vastness of the land. Sullivan’s sculptures and photographs are reminiscent of Mexican retablo paintings. Animal bone jaws, a flower guitar and images of candles, flowers and a Madonna placed on graves bring to mind religious items of devotion prominent in the culture of Mexico while maps of the Southwest evoke the history of the area combining the landscape and culture that led to the birth and creation of this unique part of the country. Alexandre Rosa’s drawings, created in ​“blue lead” style, portray human figures, animals and objects on paper and ceramic plates. Rosa’s drawings convey a feeling of nostalgia influenced by daily life, yet his characters are frozen in time without mood or conflict. A chair, a headless female figure, a bird hanging upside down are recollections of past impressions with fading details in which viewer is encouraged to fill in the gaps. Further engaging our attention, the artist raises our suspicions about what we are actually seeing by inserting text into his drawings.

http://​www​.peel​gallery​.org/​t​e​m​p​o​r​a​r​y​_​p​l​a​c​e​.html