Altered States
 Courtesy of Glenn Horowitz Bookseller |
(4/16/2008) At first glance, it would appear that Adam Stennett relates experiences from an entirely different world from the one you or I might suppose we live in. Nonetheless, the conspiracy theories, easy-bake drug culture, utopian notions, and paranoid fantasies he alludes to are in fact hiding in plain sight on the left and right banks of the mainstream.
With the ready access of the Internet and a little guidance in knowing what to look for, one can find a veritable Baedeker of merriment and mayhem with a few clicks of a mouse. In this case, Mr. Stennett is less a guide than a traveler back from the trenches, ready to paint us some postcards and share his vacation video.
In his exhibit, aptly titled “Off the Grid,” at Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton, Mr. Stennett brings these countercultural preoccupations with homemade arsenals and psychotropic drugs out into the light and addresses them in a number of mediums. It no doubt helps that Mr. Stennett grew up in Oregon, where cults and conspiracy theorists have been holing up in cabins and preparing for the apocalypse for decades.
His acrylic paintings on paper adopt the style and traditions of the classical still-life genre with some elements of popular branding thrown in to make a larger point about the easy and commercial accessibility of over-the-counter highs.
In the bookstore’s window a number of morning glory plants are thriving with the assistance of two large grow lights. Packets of morning glory seeds lined up in front show the eventual appearance of the blossoms. Mr. Stennett offers two paintings featuring the flowers: “Morning Glory Flying Saucers” and “Morning Glory Heavenly Blue With Grenades.”
Based on a quick, nonscientific survey of the Web, it appears the Heavenly Blue and Flying Saucer varieties are the preferred source of the seeds that can be extracted into an alcohol-based suspension supplying a purported LSD-like hallucinogenic high. The seeds, naphtha, Everclear grain alcohol, and pepper mill depicted are a visual recipe for making such a distillation, the directions handily supplied on several Web sites.
About three years ago, the seeds gained some notoriety on the South Fork when a student at East Hampton High School was hospitalized after eating a large quantity of them. Processing the seeds as suggested is supposed to eliminate the negative side effects.
The sources of other “legal highs” portrayed include cough syrup with dextromethorphan, nutmeg, whipped-cream canisters, poppies and their seeds, and salvia. The first three can pretty much be ingested as is, but the last two are represented with the proper paraphernalia to extract their mood-altering essences.
It is certainly no surprise to most people that poppies are the source of opium and other opiates such as heroin, OxyContin, and morphine. What is surprising is how easy it is to buy dried poppy pods in bulk from sources such as eBay. Poppy seeds are, of course, a staple on bagels and rolls as well.
These are not merely didactic exercises. The artist’s sleek, mostly monochromatic renderings of teapots, electric coffee grinders, hand-cranked grinders, plant life, a mortar and pestle, and even the recurring grenades are moody, evocative, and ultimately seductive. They represent a world that should be off-putting, but has a stylized, alchemic purity. The subjects are presented in a frank but glossy, high-end showroom mode that makes consumption seem, if not necessary, then certainly desirable.
In each painting, one element of color is introduced. Whether it is the red of the spice, cough syrup, and whipped-cream containers, the green of the salvia, or the blues of the morning glories, each shot of color is bracing and seems to be a stand-in for human presence or activity.
The mirrors, useful as a base for snorting, add an element of psychology and a stylistic flourish. They seem to refer back to bravura attempts by Netherlandish artists to capture complex reflections in looking glasses and other polished surfaces (such as the mirrors in Jan van Eyck’s “Arnolfini Wedding” or later efforts by Jan Vermeer), much as the still-life compositions themselves do.
A tabletop display features a how-to video demonstrating the proper use of a potato gun. The weapon is fashioned out of PVC pipes, an aerosol propellant (typically Aquanet hair spray, but in this case, Right Guard deodorant), a wand barbecue lighter for a spark, and a bag of potatoes. It’s a silly construct with a potentially deadly impact, and no waiting period necessary.
Mr. Stennett’s installation includes an example of a gun along with a can of Right Guard and a bag of Yukon Gold potatoes, in case anyone is inspired to try it out on Newtown Lane. (For this reason alone, it’s probably a good thing the show is not up during the high season.)
PVC pipes serve another purpose in Mr. Stennett’s sculptural works. They become forms for numbered jerseys that represent two soccer teams facing off on an AstroTurf-covered floor. Team Millbrook stands in for the utopian aspects of Timothy Leary’s experiments with LSD conducted in the town of that name in upstate New York. MK Ultra, the name of the opposing team, was a C.I.A. program that conducted research on the potential use of chemical agents, including LSD, by administering them to often unsuspecting subjects.
In a nice parallel between the allusions to drug-related conspiracy theories and antigovernment extremists holed up in cabins in the Western wilderness, it has been theorized that Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, participated in such experiments at Harvard.
Mr. Stennett points not merely to the mind-altering outcome of such trials, but to the aims and theories of those who set out to conduct them as well, in a kind of yin and yang of psychedelic experimentation. Still, the exercise is a little shallow despite its conceptual allusions. It helps that Jeremy Sanders, who organized the show, has included some related titles from the bookstore’s inventory to give a proper context for the less visually communicated ideas and references.
Similarly, the video becomes a bit tedious after a minute or two of watching. It’s a neat and amusing trick, but not all that satisfying over the long run, at least from a feminine perspective.
All in all, it is a thought-provoking and, in the case of the paintings, visually stimulating exhibit. Just how much more stimulating the show ultimately might be is up to you. It is on view until May 27.