Joan Tanner
American, 1935-
Mire, 2022
painted plastic net, painted vinyl tubes, steel re-bar, cast concrete, plastic sheeting, wood, plastic tubing, zip ties
Courtesy of the artist
COMMENTS
As part of the Out of Joint show, Tanner has conceived two site-specific installations. The most imposing piece, Mire, comprising brightly painted plastic mesh, a network of metal rods, and shellacked vinyl tubing, fills and spills from the entryway of the museum’s McCormick Gallery, dramatically altering the surroundings and recontextualizing the space where Tanner’s art is displayed. (Negotiating the physical boundaries of the artist’s exuberant installations is integral to the experience.) Mire can also be viewed as a nod to SBMA’s recent renovation and the construction that took place in the gallery itself. Out of Joint: Joan Tanner is not to be missed.
https://www.sbmag.com/whats-now/joan-of-art
JT I have recently made several big installations, and now what I’m doing is basically working with a nonmaterial, which is a lot of net, which I dutifully paint and make firm. I’m building a large wall out of it, which is what will be in Santa Barbara. I’m calling it a mire. It’s ridiculous to think at age eighty-six that I go out and use zip ties. I’m challenging my digital flexibility, my vision, and also my ability to stand. My life has become sort of odd.
JB You’re pursuing that oddness.
JT I think I’m wallowing in it!
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/pursuing-oddness-joan-tanner-interviewed/
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
This new installation was conceived especially for the exhibition, and it shows Tanner’s ongoing experimentation with generic industrial materials as well as her desire to make installations that impose themselves on the bland, institutional space of the art museum—what is usually called “the white cube.” Mire might be a translation of her drawings, with their dense tangles, convoluted nets, and jutting projections. Rather than Conté crayon, or oil and pencil, she turns to spray paint, shellac, brightly colored plastic zip ties, and commercial mesh. Could this be an organism that has wandered into the museum and become stuck between columns, with its “tail” sticking into the gallery? Or is it an explosion of matter caught by a high-speed camera? Tanner does not prescribe what the audience should think, but instead allows the work to mature in the viewer’s mind.
- Out of Joint: Joan Tanner, 2023