In an age when an individual can become anyone from anywhere, it comes as no surprise that artist Barbara Wakefield uses alter ego Ann Guiford to execute her mixed-media projects. Developed in the winter of 2009, Wakefield uses Ann Guiford to create objects and installations via an online dialogue with her Twitter and Facebook audiences. For her latest project, “Ann Guiford: Handkerchief Series,” Wakefield collected personal hankies from friends and family and embroidered each with a visual image of Guiford’s reaction to stories shared by her audience. A familiar icon emerges—the penis. “Ann Guiford Hankie #1” is stitched on a pristine white cloth and shows a curved, erect penis. This easily contrasts with “Ann Guiford Hankie #2” and “Ann Guiford Hankie #3,” hung side by side, on orange-dyed cloth with jumbled, seemingly flaccid representations. The embroidery is less defined than in #1, with the images appearing more similar to abstract constellations or connect-the-dot drawings than phalluses. Perhaps Wakefield is suggesting a peaked curiosity or excitement in the former compared to boredom and monotony in the latter. Although only three hankies are on display, the small exhibit elicits inquisitiveness about the fantastical stories originally provided to Wakefield. Regardless of size, the project is sassy, making the audience just as interested in “Guiford’s” visual stories as Wakefield is in those derived through her online interactions. (Britt Julious)
Through October 30 at Dubhe Carreno Gallery, 118 N. Peoria
Lost in Translation: A Review of Crip* at Gallery 400 The strongest works in the exhibition succinctly express the ways the artist relates to their own body while calling out how the artist’s body and body of work has been perceived or coded against norms or ideals.
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
