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Their Intentions Are Honorable During October, Space 1026 in Philadelphia hosts a two person show titled Our Intentions Are Honorable, by artists Trevor Reese and Sighn. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with both artists in depth about the show. Space 1026 is an artist run space that has been a staple in the Philadelphia art scene for the past 7 years. Climbing the stairs to the second floor gallery, one feels like they are entering a home, and it is home to 20+ artists’ studios and community space. The space was lively with someone always crossing your path, giving the place its young creative energy. I was greeted into the gallery by Sighn’s giant wooden ITSOK installation and the sound of drumming. Sighn’s exhibited ITSOK is only part of his edition of 1 million ITSOKs, estimated to be completed in the next 30-60 years. A la Roman Opalka, Sighn has committed his life to individually cutting out each piece until the edition is complete; remember, these are his intentions. Sighn, which is one of the many personalities of artist Matthew Hoffman, draws on his raw emotions and expresses them via text-based work. He told me that everyday he writes down diaristic notes and phrases on post-its, and at the end of each day culls through them and uses the most powerful messages in his work. With a background in carpentry, much of Sighn’s work is cut out of wood using a scroll saw, however a very poignant work in the show was saying the same thing over and over again helps keep me sane, cut out of various book binding cloth and placed in a neat yet colorful stack on a pedestal. The delicate cloth spoke nicely to the emotional content of the text, which reads “saying the same thing over and over again helps keep me sane,” (same as the title) and was cut out in his signature “ITSOK font.” His phrases are melancholic and elegiac, while simultaneously leaving the viewers feeling therapeutically better about themselves. Sighn stated that he saw these works as “small gestures, small momentos for people,” optimistically implying that these poetic works can make a difference for positive change. A pervading sense of optimism also runs deep in Trevor Reese’s work. In there was this one time…i was going to use the door but i got lost on the way, viewers are confronted by a perfectly sealed wooden cube with only a viewing window allowing a glimpse inside. The room is otherworldly, a moment frozen in time. Reese takes you to a time when intentions were honorable, back to the beginnings. Looking inside one finds the room covered in wood paneled walls, reminiscent of an outdated living room, becoming a metaphor for childhood itself. A small black TV is plays a video of Reese playing drums in his room as a child, while simultaneously celebratory flags (mysteriously) wave in a breeze. There is a shelf with speakers on one wall, and a convincing door on the other. Most viewers found themselves walking to the side of the room with the door looking for the entrance to no avail. But trickery doesn’t seem to be a part of either Reese’s or Sighn’s work; they both take an honest approach to conveying the complexities of raw human emotions: integrity, vulnerability, and intent, all the while caring to keep their work accessible to their audience. Opposite Reese’s room is an unabashedly honest, constructed steel drum set titled drums/trees, housing a vintage TV in the bass drum and live plants in the others. Reese’s physical hand truly shows in this piece, perhaps making up for the (purposeful) lack of it in his room. The drum set and the room play nicely off of one another. A video, the source of the audible drumming, portrays Reese in the present day, playing on a drum set mounted in trees. Reese stated, “I could have become a drummer, but I didn’t. It’s about all the paths, decisions, good and bad, that got me to where I am today.” And his works aren’t about drumming, but instead starting with the innocent intent of a child and using it to link back to his childhood video, his earliest intentions, and moving forward to an idealized present day. The live plants then are raw potential, and the care received personifies the human condition. Do we feed or neglect our ambitions? Either way, the show’s title runs true. I left the show questioning the validity of artist intent, if an honest artist makes for wholesome work, and if this becomes a judge for success. In the case of Trevor Reese and Sighn, it is. Our Intentions Are Honorable is on view until October 31, 2008 at Space 1026, located at 1026 Arch Street in Philadelphia. -Rachel Reese For more information: www.space1026.com, www.trevor-reese.com, and www.sighn.net

Their Intentions Are Honorable

During October, Space 1026 in Philadelphia hosts a two person show titled Our Intentions Are Honorable, by artists Trevor Reese and Sighn. Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with both artists in depth about the show.

Space 1026 is an artist run space that has been a staple in the Philadelphia art scene for the past 7 years. Climbing the stairs to the second floor gallery, one feels like they are entering a home, and it is home to 20+ artists’ studios and community space. The space was lively with someone always crossing your path, giving the place its young creative energy. I was greeted into the gallery by Sighn’s giant wooden ITSOK installation and the sound of drumming. Sighn’s exhibited ITSOK is only part of his edition of 1 million ITSOKs, estimated to be completed in the next 30-60 years. A la Roman Opalka, Sighn has committed his life to individually cutting out each piece until the edition is complete; remember, these are his intentions.

Sighn, which is one of the many personalities of artist Matthew Hoffman, draws on his raw emotions and expresses them via text-based work. He told me that everyday he writes down diaristic notes and phrases on post-its, and at the end of each day culls through them and uses the most powerful messages in his work. With a background in carpentry, much of Sighn’s work is cut out of wood using a scroll saw, however a very poignant work in the show was saying the same thing over and over again helps keep me sane, cut out of various book binding cloth and placed in a neat yet colorful stack on a pedestal. The delicate cloth spoke nicely to the emotional content of the text, which reads “saying the same thing over and over again helps keep me sane,” (same as the title) and was cut out in his signature “ITSOK font.”

His phrases are melancholic and elegiac, while simultaneously leaving the viewers feeling therapeutically better about themselves. Sighn stated that he saw these works as “small gestures, small momentos for people,” optimistically implying that these poetic works can make a difference for positive change.

A pervading sense of optimism also runs deep in Trevor Reese’s work. In there was this one time…i was going to use the door but i got lost on the way, viewers are confronted by a perfectly sealed wooden cube with only a viewing window allowing a glimpse inside. The room is otherworldly, a moment frozen in time. Reese takes you to a time when intentions were honorable, back to the beginnings. Looking inside one finds the room covered in wood paneled walls, reminiscent of an outdated living room, becoming a metaphor for childhood itself. A small black TV is plays a video of Reese playing drums in his room as a child, while simultaneously celebratory flags (mysteriously) wave in a breeze. There is a shelf with speakers on one wall, and a convincing door on the other. Most viewers found themselves walking to the side of the room with the door looking for the entrance to no avail.

But trickery doesn’t seem to be a part of either Reese’s or Sighn’s work; they both take an honest approach to conveying the complexities of raw human emotions: integrity, vulnerability, and intent, all the while caring to keep their work accessible to their audience.

Opposite Reese’s room is an unabashedly honest, constructed steel drum set titled drums/trees, housing a vintage TV in the bass drum and live plants in the others. Reese’s physical hand truly shows in this piece, perhaps making up for the (purposeful) lack of it in his room. The drum set and the room play nicely off of one another. A video, the source of the audible drumming, portrays Reese in the present day, playing on a drum set mounted in trees. Reese stated, “I could have become a drummer, but I didn’t. It’s about all the paths, decisions, good and bad, that got me to where I am today.” And his works aren’t about drumming, but instead starting with the innocent intent of a child and using it to link back to his childhood video, his earliest intentions, and moving forward to an idealized present day. The live plants then are raw potential, and the care received personifies the human condition. Do we feed or neglect our ambitions?

Either way, the show’s title runs true. I left the show questioning the validity of artist intent, if an honest artist makes for wholesome work, and if this becomes a judge for success. In the case of Trevor Reese and Sighn, it is.

Our Intentions Are Honorable is on view until October 31, 2008 at Space 1026, located at 1026 Arch Street in Philadelphia.

-Rachel Reese

For more information: www.space1026.com, www.trevor-reese.com, and www.sighn.net