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How Clouds Dream: Mike Swaney + Lee Hutzulak

July 11–August 9 | Opening: Friday, July 11, 7–10 PM Exhibition Hours: Wed to Sat, 12–5 PM
@ Deluge Contemporary Art
636 Yates St., Victoria, BC

How Clouds Dream goes beyond reality

by Wendy Welch

Sometimes I wonder why I find art so compelling: what drives me to spend countless hours looking at artwork and then even more time thinking, talking and writing about art? The answer, in part, is that art not only intensifies my experience in the physical world, it also transports me beyond my quotidian existence. How Clouds Dream at Deluge provides an excellent example of work that deals with the physical world while at the same time allows us to foray into other states of consciousness or awareness.

The first thing that strikes the viewer about the work of these two artists (Lee Hutzulak and Michael Swaney) is the strongly evident gesture of the handmade or handcrafted and the low-tech (and physical) use of materials: paper, glue, pencils and a minimal use of paint. These drawings and collages are a tantalizing combination of the raw and the elegant: crudely drawn figures and shapes are juxtaposed with intricate decorative detailing. The work here emanates from the deep imaginations of its creators, resulting in both an otherworldly feel as well as an experience of the familiar. These works delve into the recesses of the mind where the dark, the absurd and the playful all mingle together to create a state reminiscent of the remembered snippets of images, shapes and thoughts in nocturne dreams.

Hutzulak's drawings have the familiarity of childhood scrawls; looking at this work, one is immediately transported to a time where we unselfconsciously drew whatever came to mind and didn't worry about correctness. At the same time, these drawings contain a very adult sense of holding back; Hutzulak has made considered decisions on what—and what not—to include here. Empty space plays an important role in these somewhat dark and apocalyptic environments, as it allows the ghost-like creatures and disembodied heads that inhabit this space to float and fly through the air. These drawings seem to imply that an action has just taken place, perhaps seconds prior to the immediate scene presented to us on the gallery wall. One example, “An Authentic Secret,” is a drawing of a woman in a long green dress with several tiny mask-like heads floating above her head and a pair of scissors, a comb and a pile of hair on the ground. These narratives appear to contain a secret code the viewer has to attempt to unravel to decipher; myriad possible meanings can occur here through speculation and contemplation.

Swaney's intricate collage work contains densely complex interior spaces. Unlikely scenes become convincing in these surfaces; in one work, “When Smokey Sings,” there is a couple sitting on a sofa in a living room watching a film screen while beside them, a man lies in a bathtub. Elements are so cohesively collaged together in this image that we can suspend disbelief in this physically impossible, yet conceptually probable, scene. These seemingly claustrophobic spaces are deceptively expansive; through the use of devices such as windows, mirrors and other reflective surfaces, the interior space expands outward. The more you look at these works, the more you see, but, paradoxically, the less sure you become about what is going on.

One of the interesting (yet challenging) aspects about having a show with two artists is that an immediate and unavoidable dialectic is set up between the works. Each artists' work impacts how we view the other's work. In How Clouds Dream, we become much more conscious of all of the empty space in Hutzulak's work when contrasted with the densely filled surfaces of Swaney's. Conversely, Swaney's baroque and complex interiors appear to be almost overwrought with emotion in contrast to Hutzuluk's sparse coverage of the paper, which takes on an almost scientific coldness in comparison.

The work here is definitely engaging and the more time spent looking at these drawings and collages the more the work cinematically unfolds on both a visual and conceptual level. (As an aside, I was so compelled by the work here that I ended up purchasing one of Swaney's collages before leaving the gallery.)