Alec Clayton - Humpbacks and crossroads

Humpbacks and crossroads

Willie Ray Parish at Bryan Ohno
Review by Alec Clayton published in Art Access, March 1998

From El Paso, Texas, comes Willie Ray Parish with an exhibition of sculpture at Bryan Ohno Gallery that looks as if it were tailor made for the Pacific Northwest. A solid sculptor who knows his way around metal and wood, Parish is gradually and belatedly gaining a much-deserved national reputation.

The exhibition serves as a kind of mini-retrospective highlighting works from two distinct periods: the "Humpback" series, variations of shapes formed by surfacing sea mammals, and a group of wooden sculptures and wood and steel assemblages that relate well to each other even though each piece explores different ideas. The works in this series are metaphors for various life experiences. The titles imply their meaning: "Crossroads," "Carcass" and "Divider," communicating universal themes while leaving room for the individual's interpretation.

“Divider” creates a massive Z shape on the floor. Built of oak timbers with hand-carved wooden joints, it is like a dormant but threatening snake that may rise up at any moment. Parish thinks of it as a barrier, a metaphor for the barriers we face daily in life. A similar piece, “Crossroads,” carries a related metaphorical weight ľ the decisions we must make at life’s crossroads. This piece is a vertical X that meets at a point at the top, and is assembled out of columns from an old home in Mississippi. Parish’s Southern heritage shows up in many ways, from found materials saved from his Mississippi home to naming a piece “Humpback: Rolo” after a teammate on a bygone Ole Miss Rebel football team.

During his long career, Parish has done a little of everything, from environmental and earthwork pieces to installations wherein he cuts out part of the gallery floor, to massive-minimalist abstractions, to traditional ceramic vessels. His humpback series is probably the nearest thing to a unified body of work he has ever produced, and I find this series to be by far his most exciting.

Although the forms of whales and dolphin and manatees rising out of the sea are familiar enough, the works should primarily be viewed as abstract. There is no attempt at realism. The forms are, by design, vague enough that viewers might respond to them as aeronautical or as something other than sea mammals. The simple shapes are enhanced with subtle but striking surface variations, as Parish hammers, polishes and paints the surface with layers of enamel, hand-polishing each layer until the sculptures almost become paintings.

“Humpback: Nature Girl” and “Humpback: Rolo” rise ominously from the floor, looking much larger than their actual size (3’ x 7’ x 3’). The rough skins are made of welded stainless steel and the surface scarring is made by hammering the inside with a ball peen hammer. The shapes are rough but elegant. He thinks of the surfaces as representing the scars of life in the sea with natural predators or the breakdown from environmental toxins. But his minimalist forms and the care taken with surface treatment elevate form above content.

The later works in particular are almost too pretty for the metaphorical weight they carry. The surfaces look almost like paintings by Jules Olitske or Larry Poons. In the long run this dichotomy (rough-smooth, abstract-symbol laden) may be the best things these sculptures have going for them.

The smaller pieces in the Humpback series hang on the wall, and the vertical orientation changes the associations from mammals to something more akin to shields or, perhaps, even sea shells. The raw surfaces become more jewel-like, as in “Manatee,” which is painted white with hundreds of pebble-like protrusions that are painted red and blue. The elegance of this piece is starkly beautiful.

Parish started this series out of concern for the environment and selected sea mammals as a symbol for his attempt to call attention to environmental crises. "The shape formed by the portion of a mammal that breaks above the water is both beautiful and mysterious," Parish says. "There are an infinite number of variations to this simple form and the mystery of what we don't see is so powerful."

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