By Marilyn Bauer
Enquirer staff writer
What do 10 TV satellite dishes, eight teens, and a high-concept artist have in common? Art! Todd Pavlisko, 30, an instructor in the ArtWorks summer apprentice program and a former teacher at the Andy Warhol Museum, worked with young artists to create self-portraits painted or collaged onto the curved surfaces of gray satellite discs, donated by Time Warner.
"I wanted to get into deep issues and talk about contemporary art," says Pavlisko of the six-week program. "I wanted the kids to be able to do something about our culture (not the high school culture) and put it on view for the public to see."
The group went to museums, scoured contemporary art magazines and, after Pavlisko set the parameters of the project stressing the importance of color because their work would be shown in the Contemporary Arts Center's UnMuseum, the artists went to work.
The results are a group of stunning self-portraits that range in style from Andy Warhol-esque realistic repetition to a bruise-colored portrait painted over a band-aid background. The apprentices used Polaroid snapshots, silver foil, toile fabric and paint to get their concepts across and added their own audio commentary, accessible through the headphones attached to each disc.
Pavlisko says he wanted the program to go on for a year: "They were hungry and eager to get involved with something beyond their high school program. I challenged them."
After nightly homework assignments, discussions about technology and its impact on their lives and intense five-hour workdays, the conceptual installation was completed.
"I was so blown away and surprised," Pavlisko says. "They made work that asked questions not only of the public but of themselves. It was very political. They challenged their religions, the value of money and tried to figure out as 18-year-olds how they would move out into the system."
It's clear the kids learned a lot, but what did Pavlisko get out of the experience?
Pure joy.
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E-mail mbauer@enquirer.com
