b
y ELIZABETH H.
VOSS
Special to The
Oakland Press
With
striking abstract collages of black lines, old maps and photos as well as
haunting prints of stark buildings, Cooper Holeweski combines his
interests in politics and aesthetics.
He created a
"Meditations on Colonization" series of five large collages, in charcoal,
graphite, chalk, acrylic and digital imagery, as a critique of U.S.
involvement in Iraq. The Pleasant Ridge native believes the United States
is motivated by economics and draws parallels to British imperialism and
the German occupation of Poland during World War II.
Jagged lines
connecting digital images of World War II-era maps, a bomber aircraft and
a large building resting on an oil field suggest these ideas. But
Holeweski says he wants viewers to think for themselves.
"The work is
hinting at these things," the 26-year-old says, "but there are multiple
readings to all of the work. I like to leave it up to interpretation. It's
propaganda if it tells you what to think. This is work that presents a
problem."
Jef
Bourgeau, founding director of the Museum of New Art in Pontiac, was
impressed with the young artist's confidence and professionalism.
"The allure
of the old printmaking techniques and his newer collages — that mixture of
where he's coming from and where's he's taking his art — was interesting,"
says Bourgeau, 57, who is showing "Boom and Bust," an installation of more
than 25 pieces by Holeweski, through July 24.
The artist
fell in love with printmaking at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
where he earned bachelor's degrees in political science and fine arts.
After graduating, he further studied lithography for a few months in
Argentina. He used the intaglio printmaking technique to create bleak
images of buildings and, later, abstracts. In addition, he makes abstracts
using charcoal, graphite and chalk.
"I felt
limited in what I could express in representational imagemaking," says
Holeweski about his decision to work in abstraction. "Within the realm of
abstraction, I can make numerous conclusions, I can make logical parallels
in historical events, I can fully express my own political ideologies, and
I can more easily invoke my emotions about these concepts in my work."
Holeweski
says he is critiquing multinational globalization in his artwork.
"A lot of my
work is about the haves and the have-nots," he explains. "Many people bear
the weight of how we live."
The young
artist talks about people from poorer nations making products in sweat
shops for companies from arrogant, wealthier nations, but he is quick to
explain that he isn't condemning individuals, but a larger economic
system.
"Finger-pointing is easy," he says. "It's easy to say corporations are
bad. This politician is bad or that politician is bad. It's really a
larger systemic issue. It's the climate that allows people to do terrible
things and rationalize it."
Because he
is from Detroit, art critics sometimes lump him in with other Detroit
artists who find beauty in urban decay, but he says that's a mistake.
"I don't
think there's anything beautiful about buildings rotting away," he
explains. "None of my work is specifically about Detroit. It's as much
about Baghdad as it is about Detroit."
A video
piece called "Homeland," a meditative look at the Las Vegas strip, will
run during the "Boom and Bust" show. This reflects another aspect of
Holeweski's artistic interests. Last summer, he focused on video
installations during an artist-in-residence program in an art gallery in
Finland.
In college,
Holeweski considered going to law school and pursuing a career in civil
rights or community activism. Now, in addition to creating art in a
bedroom studio, he is working full-time as a program coordinator at the
Michigan Suburbs Alliance, a Ferndale-based nonprofit group that does
redevelopment in the inner-ring suburbs. He's now working on a project to
develop more rail transportation in the Detroit suburbs.
But
Holeweski sees art as his career focus and enjoys teaching as well as
creating art. Last semester, he taught a lithography class at the College
of Creative Studies in Detroit, and in winter 2006, he taught painting and
drawing at Washtenaw Community College. In September, he plans to enter a
master's of fine arts program in printmaking at the Rhode Island School of
Design in Providence, R.I.
"Cooper has
a nice feel for materials," says Nancy Mitter, a painting and drawing
professor at the College of Creative Studies, Detroit, and a family
friend. "The mixing of materials in his collages has become very fruitful.
I'm anxious to see how his work evolves as he goes to Rhode Island."
Growing up
in Pleasant Ridge, Holeweski was the older of two sons with an art dealer
father and social worker-turned-nurse mother.
"My dad
helped cultivate my aesthetic sensibility," he says, "and my mom the
do-gooder."
"I thought
my impact might be stronger as an artist," says Holeweski, who is living
in Ypsilanti with his wife, a high school teacher.
"I'm not
making direct change, but I'm getting a dialogue out there and criticizing
what I find wrong with the world."