Dylan Mortimer, Andrzej Zielinski, and Jaimie Warren

Jaimie Warren and Whoop Dee Doo



Andrzej Zielinski



Dylan Mortimer

"The Charlotte Street Foundation Visual Artists Awards are sort of like the Emmys of the art world in Kansas City,” a friend of mine remarked, as she tried to explain what all the fuss was about to a “non-art gallery frequenter.” To keep it simple: local artists are given a sum of money (to do whatever they wish with) as a way to further promote the abundant creativity within Kansas City. These artists are also expected to participate in an exhibition in which they will be the focus. In years past the recipients of the awards have been the likes of Jim Leedy, Gear, Russell Ferguson, Cody Critcheloe of the Ssion,Donald Ross (“Scribe”),Ke-Sook Lee, Lester Goldman, and Lori Raye Erickson, just to name a few. These are people of divergent practices yet never ceasing productivity.
What this year’s youthful recipients suggest (as well as artists of years past such as Cody Critcheloe) is that Kansas City is now starting to emerge as a vital arts community. The winners of this year’s award: Dylan Mortimer, Andrzej Zielinski, and Jaimie Warren have all received national attention. Warren has even received international acclaim. It is important to note that the same can be said for many recipients of years past. In this sense, the CSF visual artist awards functions as a way of insuring Kansas City’s spot on the art map and of keeping these talented young artists local. This is an effort, on behalf of the CSF, to build upon the art scene within Kansas City. This is opposed to Kansas City becoming just another place in which folks pass through. In short, it is a way of securing K.C. a spot as an emergent “art center”. Kansas City has now become a launching pad for artistic careers, especially in the case of Mortimer, Zielinski, and Warren who all possess DIY attitudes when it comes to their craft as well as their approach towards the business side of art making.
Dylan Mortimer is known for his exploration of his Christian faith through faith-based messages, which are, altered into popular expressions of everyday language and popular culture. This exploration has formulated into a system of messaging that have been presented as public signage interventions (such as telephone booths converted into a prayer booths), kiosks, Stained Glass Windows, and so on. For the CSF Visual Artist Awards, Mortimer has utilized the language of hip-hop to critique a culture of materialism and by association, the false sense of spirituality that may be prevailing within a culture of want. Using street dialect to communicate messages of moral value, Mortimer’s wall hangings are constructed out of cardboard, glitter, and Christmas lights. These materials are the poor man’s materials: cheap and humble. Not adorned with expensive gold, these wall hangings may appear very embellished but only for a brief second. These are not slick objects in the sense of the objects contemporary society seems so concerned with. The use of such direct, everyday materials is very obvious but this is what helps one come to the recognition of their own desire. As Mortimer proclaims in Fuck You Satan, which is composed of text inside a military-tank, is the fact that we all wish to rid of such desire, to become released from the shackles of want. At the same time, we also proclaim that our spirituality is a vital component in our good fortunes, which in contemporary society and in contradictory fashion, has been translated into material possessions. In this recognition one praises the higher power or as Mortimer states: God Hooks My Ass Up! Yet what exactly does God provide? Is it a material wealth, which is evident in his gold chain series, which depict the last supper and Christ wearing a crown of thorns? Mortimer asserts that economic status is irrelevant in terms of faith. Mortimer asks some very important questions of contemporary society but the one that seems to be the most prevalent is: has faith been reduced to a commodity?
Andrzej Zielinski’s paintings presented in the CSF Visual Artist Awards seem to float within an indeterminate state. Floating somewhere between representational still-life paintings and abstraction, these multiple panel, mixed media paintings and smaller framed images, depict satellites in a mixture of vivid and solemn hues. For the bigger paintings, composed of multiple panels, one must look up towards the image of the ubiquitous satellite. These satellites are what connect the world in a technological sense and according to interpretations of Stanley Kubrick’s and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, keeps the threat of nuclear war ever present in the future. Zielinski’s paintings play upon our fears, our ambitions, to keep striving beyond our means. Satellites seem to represent our utopian aspirations for perfection in which we look towards the heavens and neglect our own well-being. Zielinski paintings seem to be exercises similar to technological explorations, in the sense, that his paintings present a sense of experimentation into the realm of the unfamiliar. They function as the most challenging of art functions: to create a process of questioning within the viewer. In this case, I am left wondering: What exactly does progress mean?
Jaimie Warren, of international acclaim, is known for her creative shenanigans under the moniker of the collective art group, Whoop Dee Doo , which opperates in a faux public access television format, and her photographs, which appear to document her humorous navigations within the world. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? For the CSF Visual Artist Awards show, Warren decided, most appropriately, to exhibit a sort of history of Whoop Dee Doo via a film of documented amusing hi-jinxs and performances. This all takes place in the goofy installation she has set up inside what is to be perceived as a magical cave made of found and recyclable materials. Whoop Dee Doo is all fun and games (and rightfully so in a world of so much pain and anguish), which presents a formula for artistic contribution and collaboration that serves as an “anyone can do this” model. For Warren it is a curatorial and collaborative based project in which the collective becomes more important than the individual. Although the notion of the collective identity appears trendy, Warren complicates things with her photographs. It is within her photographs, which appear as though they are taken from her flickr account, in which the individual (Warren herself) and the collective (the rest of the world she engages with) merge. Here Identity is fused within the language of the everyday snapshot. The photographs present the world, for Warren, as a place of personal navigation and self-reflection, which can appear self-indulgent. These photographs, to my surprise, are quite modest in comparison to the blatant energy produced by Whoop Dee Doo, which in many ways, allows Warren a different sort of artistic license. Whoop Dee Doo, is her project in which she truly allows others in. The model of Whoop Dee Doo, might not be fresh but what Whoop Dee Doo provides is the space and permission for individuals to be who they are with the comaraderie of a collective identity which is healthy but when taken to cult like extremes, can become dangerous.
The CSF Visual Artist Awards show was surprisingly playful, and that in and of itself is something to respect. However, Mortimer's work is the most accessible with its use of contemporary street language. His work is unapologetic and in your face. Not to mention amusing. Zielinski's work is promising but is he telling us anything new? The same could be said for Warren who besides giving a community a creative outlet, really isn't giving us anything challenging to view. There is of course the whole elevating the status of "the everyday snapshot" to fine art but the photographs presented by Warren aren't very revealing of those moments of the everyday which make life truly special. Instead, they are primarily Hedonistic. There are no entry points for the viewer to step into her work.
Let’s hope that the honor of such a prestigious award pushes these young artists to new, extraordinary heights and fosters their artistic growth in a time of great adversity.

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