Power to the Paint

By Joe Dwyer     12/3/09 6:00pm

Combining Mormon imagery with vibrantly colored stencils from and inspired by Chilean stencilistas, anthropology doctoral candidate Michael Adair-Kriz has brought together two disparate subjects to create his new installation, Stenciling Power. More than just a slapdash collection of eclectic art pieces, Stenciling Power is the result of the two years Kriz spent in Santiago, Chile, doing field research and working with different groups of stencilistas.There are several different media at work in this installation, on display in the Rice Media Center Gallery through Tuesday, Dec. 15. The majority of Stenciling Power consists of rollered and spray-painted stencil images that confront issues including sexuality, religion, leftist politics and significant figures in the field of cultural anthropology. In addition to his original works, Adair-Kriz has reproduced or photographed dozens of authentic stencils from his time in Santiago, in doing so creating the best part of the installation.

Upon entering the installation, the viewer is greeted on one side with a television playing accelerated clips of several Chilean stencilistas working on a large stencil of two women, all the while conversing about the universal nature of their work and how it is meant to be put in the street for everyone to see. After taking in some of the garishly colored stencils scattered around the exhibit, it would be next to impossible not to see these stencils on a given street corner or building.

While a handful of stencils were executed on planks - or an old screen door, in one instance - found on the Bolivar Peninsula, the rest have been painted directly onto the Media Center Gallery's walls, hung with copper wire or affixed to the wall with wheat paste. They range in size from a postcard to a wall-spanning, rainbow-colored series of stencils depicting Joseph Smith, Mormonism's founding father, and a "totem pole" of notable figures in the field of cultural anthropology, such as Claude Lévi-Strauss and Franz Boas.

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One point of contention with this installation would be its continuous slideshow of Mormon temples on a wall flanked by a pair of stencils in the form of erect penises. While it was neither offensive nor detrimental to the exhibit, the juxtaposition seemed out of place with the other media. The installation had already established a very clear sexual theme with some of its pieces, such as the rainbow-colored series of Joseph Smiths, but this particular segment just seemed superfluous.

Then again, maybe I'm missing the point. As Adair-Kriz mentions in his installation description, the entire exhibit seeks to bridge the gap between the two seemingly unrelated areas of Mormonism and the provocative images of the Chilean stencilistas. These stencils are designed to grab your attention and to communicate a very clear, often jarring message that not everyone may be completely comfortable with.

Few images in the installation do this better than a giant red pair of McDonald's arches tracing the trajectory of a set of airplanes as they swoop down into the New York skyline above the words "EAT THIS." Adair-Kriz has captured perfectly the anarchist, leftist vibe that runs through many of the stencils in this installation, and there is little doubt that the vigor and authenticity he brings would make the stencilistas proud.

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