Lizzie Charboneau: Number 3

Ryan LaBar’s work looks like it is a pile of trash or bits of metal pieced together. However, He has taken large objects made of porcelain and pieced them together in a jumbled way that makes sense and have meaning. He makes abstract shapes, and realistic looking objects like gears, knobs and chains. His compositions often look like a mess and that they are random, but once you read the title, it is more understandable. I feel that this can hinder and help his mission. As a viewer, I was first put off by his work because it didn’t make sense. I was like okay… so he painted gears and warped them and fit them together… great… what is the purpose of this? But after looking at the title of some things, like “Just Don’t Let a Panda Borrow Your Bicycle,” I see the humor and the correlation between the color, shape, and objects in the compositions. I like that he puts a bit of humor in his work, because, let’s be real… you really shouldn’t lend you r bike to a panda bear, but seeing his display of a completely jumbled up bicycle, clearly states why you really shouldn’t let a panda bear borrow your bike, because it would end up looking like this.

As I look through the pictures of his work more, it makes me want to see them in person more and more. The way he positions the piece and the objects within the piece make me want to walk around it, flip it over, look all over it and try to find a treat in it or something. I like that in some works he has perfect geometrical shapes, like cones or tubular circles, and then in others he warps common objects like gears and other mechanical objects.

I am a dancer, and always end up looking at artwork and objects in a form of a dance. Some of his work I find very appealing because I can see the dance that was done in creating the object, and the dance that would be the result of following the rhythm and the movement of the piece. One that I am drawn to in particular is “Jazz Tinged with Sorrow as well as Somber Beauty.” The thick, flowing, black strips of the piece seem like the movement of a dancer as she or he swirls and pushes and pulls to the slow, somber music. The irregularity of the movement seems to work its way around the space like the body of a dancer and contracts into itself in places that I would put a move that has the dancer pull into their body.