Published January 17th, 2006
BILL RADAWEC, OUT OF THE BLUE
January 12th, 2007 - February 3rd, 2007
Exit (a gallery space)
2688 W.14th St. Cleveland Oh, 44113
330-321-8161
Out of the Blue -- A bright, cloudless blue sky marred only by a faint white curving contrail. Clevelanders gazing upward on 9-11 might have seen something like that, if it's true that the fourth hijacked plane did indeed turn around over Northeast Ohio on its way toward Washington. Launching into another completely new line of work, Parma artist Bill Radawec here imagines how that patch of sky might have looked in a thought-provoking series of minimalist pictures. Inspired equally by the works of Barnett Newman and by Hollywood blue screens, Radawec begins each image essentially the same way: with sky-blue paper or canvas painted in acrylic of the same hue. Size and shape vary considerably, from notebook- and poster-sized to narrow horizontal strips. The rest is nothing but white pencil, depicting various arcing jet exhausts from different perspectives. There are 30 examples here and many more in storage. Most hang near the ceiling, forcing viewers to participate vicariously by looking up. Simple, perhaps, but the overtones are complex, and the interpretive potential is as boundless as the possibilities a blue screen represents. It's a strange exercise, pondering Cleveland's oblique relationship to such a momentous event. And Radawec himself has long been fascinated by these sort-of-close encounters with tragedy (the first being the suicide of his artistic idol). More important, no one who noticed one of these contrails that day would have suspected the horrible reality. In fact, they may even have smiled, assuming they'd seen a stunt plane. How wrong they would have been. Through February 3 at Exit Gallery, 2688 W. 14th St., 330-321-8161