Gnomon’s Sketch Theatre Event
By: M.Song
As an artist, when people ask me to define what “art” is I am usually left speechless. Not because the question is insulting my intelligence or because of some deep seated trauma involving gauche. It’s because “art” is a loaded and ephemeral question that can’t be explained without a lot of time and cigarettes. There are many interpretations of what “art” is. Is it just a device to express the soul, or is it just another way to tantalize our eyes? Can art be defined by a tangible object, or is it a feeling that can be manipulated and molded at the creators choosing? Sketch Theatre is one of those venues that skirts that line of ambiguity.
Sketch Theatre was created by Alex Alvarez who also happens to be the founder of Gnomon, a school for visual effects and arts in Hollywood. Artists apply and come to their studio rig and sketch what ever they want. This work is then turned into a short video for everyone to view. It’s dictated in their mission statement that, “Aspiring artists are exposed to contemporary artists and the various career paths taken by these like-minded individuals who all began their careers by simply putting ideas and expressions down with a pencil & paper. The brilliant myriad of artists featured on Sketch Theatre strip down and expose raw sketches on camera, never failing to captivate and inspire” and they stay true to it. Giving opportunities to the younger audience and trying to break preconceived notions of art is the feeling that I got from this project. So it’s no surprise that Gnomon would have a gallery reception to showcase these artists.
Celebrating the release of their first book and using the Gnomon gallery space, Sketch Theater and Gnomon showed us how much class they have. Instead of the usual stuffy white walls of your typical gallery, Sketch Theater really made it all about the young people. Open bar, Dj, and elegantly dressed bar girls left the impression that it was a place to celebrate their creation together and share a little bit of what they wanted to portray with their project. The mood came across and, to a certain extent, I would also say that about the art work that lined the walls of the gallery.
Why a certain extent you ask? While I see what they were going for it was more of a celebration that it was an art show. If there was a need to actually analyze and compare against other art shows I would have to say that, while there are a lot of beautiful sketches created through spontaneous inspiration, it is hard to say that they are in their autonomy, completed pieces of art. As I asked for opinions of the show, each opinion was as different as their own definition of art was. While some said they had a hard time viewing the sketches as pieces, there were others that said that they loved the simplicity and unpolished feeling that it gave. Most just enjoyed their intoxication and saw it as an interesting experience. In the end, while it might not be what everyone defines as high art, I can confidently say that if anything, it was a great time. Whatever your definition of “art” may be, there is one thing that we can all agree on and that is that the experience always outweighs the label.
For more on this event, the book, and the video, go to:
