Reviews: Massachusetts

Doug Bell: Projects
HallSpace • Dorchester, MA • www.hallspace.org

Twenty-four mixed-media works created with paint can tops, rusted metal, nails, bottle caps, and paint-splattered drop cloths could easily resemble the interior of a dumpster. But in Doug Bell’s capable hands, the cast-offs are reworked and reorganized into interesting, and often beautiful, art.

This skillful organization is astonishing given the scale of some of the works. In The Belfast Galaxy (2008), over one hundred found objects are affixed to a ten-by-eight-foot wall painting. Originally made for the Aarhus Gallery in Belfast, Maine, the triptych has been reconfigured to accommodate HallSpace, making it site-specific a second time. On the left, paint can tops with original color, or rust, overlap into a serpentine trail. Used drop cloths on the center panels are reworked into horizontal bands of color.  The right side features the paint-splattered worktable on which the artwork was created, buttressed by a border of license plates.

This delight in the use of unconventional art objects references Robert Rauschenberg’s famous Compilations. While Rauschenberg’s works often have a disorderly, chaotic feel, Bell deftly uses these disparate items to create orderly, logical compositions.

A sense of harmony is also evident in the small-scale works. In Rust and Dust Triptych (2008), fragments of a sunny yellow poster with cartoonish faces flank a center panel alluringly textured with rust and marble dust. Fine proportions and small details, like the border of nail heads, add to this eye-catching composition. Similar in size, Envelope Sketch (2008) offers an attractive arrangement of discarded paper, a splintered paint stirrer, bubble wrap, and bulbous accretions of glue.

Plastic army men, a frequent motif, are often broken or melted. In White Soldiers (2008), a grid of “fallen” soldiers is attached to the front, while along the top a dense row of “standing” soldiers breaks out of the frame. The surface, powdery white with hints of subtle pastel colors, is incongruously pretty.

Bell’s art offers a humorous, unexpected, and often compelling use of found objects. By showing us the visual potential of the detritus around us, he challenges us to think beyond the comfort of our throwaway consumer culture.

—Susan Mulski

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