Alice's Wonderland of Body Parts

In the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies gallery, a clandestine experiment with body parts is currently taking place. Human limbs are multiplied, ears are attached to odd areas, and unforgiving horns are cultivated on human skulls. In the exhibition “A Recent Survey,” artist and Sonoma State University professor Kurt Kemp tampers with our assumptions about the arrangement of the human body, stitching a wide range of themes into his prints with collages and drawings.

At first glance, the gallery resembles the illustrated world of Alice’s Wonderland, saturated with colors and dizzying mystical creatures. To the right, a hare-like creature prances through a meadow on six human limbs and boasts a total of eight ears on its rear end. To the left, a man catches rain in an upturned nose, the nostrils combined into one and opening into a large bowl. All of the artwork has been captured in color reminiscent of Marvel comics, but are swathed in a darker and thicker texture.
Kemp utilizes a fair amount of popular culture in his art, collaging not only cutouts of American comics, but also ones from Japanese manga. “Those images being from popular culture come into my vocabulary as images we share as a culture, and ... speak to the commonality that we use to communicate graphic novels and comic books,” said Kemp in an interview. “Sometimes I glean through my old comic books and so forth and cut things out.”

But Kemp’s work doesn’t remain on the level of popular culture. The artist also addresses themes that run from the political to the personal, family sphere. This exhibition centers mostly around the image of the “self,” and many pieces can be interpreted as very personal self-portraits of the artist. However, Kemp’s artwork is so blatantly Kemp, unafraid of upsetting balances and normality, that sometimes it might come off as invasive and too exclusive. At other times, though, Kemp touches on themes both personal and universal. In one frame, a man with disproportionately long legs and a short torso stands in a miniature wooden boat, his chest bare except for two swirls of chest hair. A pair of horns and a dunce cap sit snugly on his head while this dismayed character is scrutinized by three others, two with extended noses. The protagonist almost seems to be asking the viewer: How can you not depend on the opinions of others when seeing yourself?

This preoccupation with questioning and doubt comes through even more clearly in other pieces, where the displacement of body parts creates a slightly sickening spectacle. The organs of sense are mixed almost heretically, with noses scooping into mouths and faces morphing into bear-like snouts. However, these disturbing Frankensteins are complete in and of themselves and look out of their frames as if they are plainly existing creatures. The viewer may ask: Why does the nose smell instead of taste? Why do ears belong to the sides of my head? These patchwork characters suggest new associations of the senses, taking nothing for granted.

Displacement is also addressed in the collage element of Kemp’s work. A cutout of Spider-Man with heightened senses and spider qualities is juxtaposed with a character that has his own superhuman senses. “What collaging does for me is that it opens up another avenue that adds to the work that liberates me from using all the printing process and the mechanical process of printmaking,” said Kemp. When a colorful print with illustrative qualities is peppered with the black and white frames of Japanese manga, the jarring effect feeds the imagination, creating new possibilities. “A Recent Survey” certainly offers an alternative to a contented attitude towards mundane life.
Nose and toe cocktail, anyone?