IF IT'S NOT NEW, IT'S NOT ART

Joseph Riche constantly pushes new boundaries with his work.

Sometimes, it starts with the sight of something odd in a thrift store. Other times, it starts with a motor sitting idle in the shop, or a sudden idea. But, when Joe Riché finishes, it probably will be made of metal, taller than the average American, and a bit dangerous to touch. Riché creates kinetic metal sculptures. Working out of his 3153 Larimer St. studio, his work serves multiple purposes. While he is perhaps best known in Denver for his work with the New Havoc Amateurs, he also shows in galleries and outdoor spaces, teaches, and fabricates custom signs and furniture for businesses and private collectors.

It's not easy to work in pyrotechnic metal sculpture, especially when you're trying to build a reputation. "I get tagged as copying SRL (Survival Research Labs) and compared to Jean Tinguely, who worked in machine art, but working in the same medium doesn't mean copying," Riché said.

SRL's work is a far cry from Riché's favorite projects: the Society for the Preservation of Humanity. Riché, his mentor Mark Guilbeau, and several other artists founded the Society in Louisiana in the early '90s. It sponsors two-year outdoor sculpture exhibits, many of which go on to travel the United States after their initial showing.

The sculptures are unusual in that they are not intended to be lasting monuments. "These works wouldn't get past the average art committee, because we sometimes use more degradable materials. Paper, cloth... they'll last for two years," Riché said.

The Society's newest exhibit, the Dry Creek Sculpture Garden in Englewood, attracted attention for more than just its materials at its opening in 1999. It may go on tour this summer, and will possibly be replaced with a new sculpture garden. The Society also has a travelling installation currently showing in Atlanta.

Society sculptor Aaron Newman received criticism for his 1999 Dry Creek piece, Statuary, which consists of a number of animal sculptures turned upside-down, their heads entirely missing. According to Riché, the work elicited negative comments ranging from animal-dignity protest to assertions that the animals' rears were aimed at a local school.

Riché takes the comments as sign of the show's success. Riché passionately aims to educate viewers, and the Society sculptors are required to create artist's statements toward that end. Newman's statement says, "[ The animal sculptures] have become so common a decoration that we hardly take notice of them."

"The statements allow the viewers to make an educated opinion," Riché said. He later noted, "A lot of people say, 'I know what I like. ' Well, a chicken knows what it likes, but I can assure you it knows nothing about art."

Riché criticizes artists who don't act to widen people's vision. Preserving humanity, in the Society's eyes, requires artists who hang around to defend a piece after it's installed, and who take chances. "I feel that most of the work I see is the same thing, repeated," Riché said. "It's not new, it's not different."

Riché himself takes concrete steps to ensure that people aren't like the chickens. He teaches sculpture at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. He also worked with Arts Street, a summer program matching inner-city children with artistic mentors.

Riché models some of his teaching style after his own mentor, Mark Guilbeau. Guilbeau quickly abandoned the "professorial" role and addressed his students as fel-low artists.

Currently, Riché is designing a new kinetic sculpture to be exhibited through Andeken Gallery and Design Group at GOOG Design, 765 Santa Fe. The work plays a little with GOOG's focus on furniture. It consists of a tall side-table with a large metal hoop mounted on top of it. A metal diameter with spheres at each end spins just inside the circumference of the hoop. Blue veins of electricity jump from the spheres to the hoop.

Much of Riché's other new work, though, will be displayed in the New Havoc Amateur's performance on May 12 here in Denver. After that, the group will be performing a U. S. tour, with shows in Texas and Louisiana and possible stops in South Dakota, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

New Havoc embodies many of the virtues Riché values in artists. He met up with the group in 1997 through founder Eric DeWine's uncle, professor Charles Parson of the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. He now counts Parson and the members of New Havoc among the strongest influences on his work.

"New Havoc got me interested in doing machines for performance value again," said Riché. "I'd been offered a spot with other groups, but I found New Havoc fit more comfortably. New Havoc didn't talk, they did."

--Kate Williamson

More information on Joe Riché's work exists at www.newhavoc.org and www.sph6011.org

SEASONS AND FLESH
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RULE MODERN & CONTEMPORARY

Two common aphorisms: the scariest monster is the one you can't see; the suggested body is more attractive than the full nude. In the new exhibit at the Rule Modern & Contemporary Gallery at 111 Broadway, painter Jeffrey Keith and photographer Mark Sink draw on the power of suggestion to explore time and desire in their respec-tive Recent Work: Excerpts from the Twelve Seasons and Apparitions: Selections from the Erotic Albums.

Sink's Apparitions deeply explores the desirability and fear of the hidden. Using the beginnings and ends of rolls of film, he photographs nudes-- mostly women-- going by titles such as Laura #3. The interest of the work lies in that uncertainty behind the title: these are not pictures of people, or even bodies. They depict instead lambent flesh on an equally luminescent background. Parts of bodies are hinted at, although the warmth and life of them and the beauty of their shapes comes through to the viewer.

The photos therefore force the viewer into confronting his or her reactions to the rawest physical forms, and into infusing his or her own imaginings into the work. In Shannon #3, a white glow between two bits of flesh asks ques-tions. Is it a reflection, or a glow from between two slightly separated parts? If the latter, are the parts a head and a shoulder, two arms, two bodies, a belly and a thigh...what?

Such confusion can be as disturbing as it is titillating. In Tia #5, it seems as though a pinch is being made of another expanse of flesh with the softness and undefined quality of an infant. The photo plays the lines between the erotic and the gross, the thin bits pulling on a horizon of flesh under blue light.

By contrast, many of Keith's works bypass humanity entirely. The Twelve Seasons paintings, hung in an intuitive progression around the front room of the gallery, strike single color notes that elicit primal responses. Each is an exploration of color: the many blues in February, 2001 combine to create a striking dark hue utterly different in feel from the colors of January, 2000. The thick, blocked texture and super-rich tones of the paint capture attention and keep it.

The titles of the work inevitably define the paintings somewhat for the viewer. November, 2000 consists of dark, vivid purples; August, 2000 appears as brilliant yellows. The progression is clear: blues for the winter months, through to green in the spring and reds and yellows in the summer, purple in the fall. This can either be comforting, sweeping the viewer up in a seasonal wheel, or off-putting.

Keith's other works, particularly the Heaven and Earth series, situate the viewer between the up and down suggested in the title, but unexpectedly so. Keith uses aluminum and oil on mylar, reminding one of roofs and streets. Each has a flat, grainy texture on a perfectly square board-- the green guidelines are visible where the "resurfacing" didn't quite reach the edge.

The two artists' bodies of work present subtle associations between image and imagery. Keith and Sink also share a common landscape: the show brings together two respected, experienced Denver artists, said gallery director and owner Robin Rule. The show can be viewed through March 10.

--Kate Williamson