The Autotopographers installation on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019. At left, Beatriz Cortez, The Lakota Porch: A Time Traveler, 2017; sheet metal. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, CA. Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
In 1995, art historian Jennifer A. González coined the term “autotopography” to describe how biography is revealed in the creation of one’s environment. The personal objects comprising an autotopography are extensions of the maker’s self, of life events, and of cultural identity.
Through Sept. 15, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (608 New York Ave, Sheboygan) presents The Autotopographers—a group exhibition exploring this idea through the work of ten contemporary artists: Joianne Bittle, Sarah Braman, Andy Coolquitt, Beatriz Cortez, iris yirei hu, Benjamin Larose, Azikiwe Mohammed, Yoshie Sakai, Becky Suss and Ray Yoshida.
Since 1994, Austin-based Andy Coolquitt has been constructing a multifaceted commune, salon, party house, sculpture, happening, and environment in the center of the city. For The Autotopographers Coolquitt built a series of rooms that contain aspects of his Austin house including a vape room, kitchen, pantry and bathroom.
His immersive work offers settings for conversations, cooking, nostalgia, and performances. Coolquitt populates his work with humorous and uncanny vignettes that ask viewers to consider their relationship to domestic objects and spaces.
Sarah Braman’s truck bed and glass reading nook, Let’s Read Together (Badger Den), delves into our relationship to quality time. Two large-scale paintings by Becky Suss are included that in her own words act as “stages for daily life, the backdrop to what we do in our lives that are of our own stories.” Beatriz Cortez’s The Lakota Porch: A Time Traveler is a steel façade modeled after the craftsmanship of Dan Montelongo, an Apache Mescalero master stone builder who constructed homes known as “river-rock houses” in Los Angeles between 1923–1925.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Joianne Bittle presents a diorama of a prehistoric Great Lakes Basin landscape housed in the back of a horse trailer. Iris yirei hu shows Spring, the latest in her Survival Guide series, which explores her grandmother’s Hmong heritage through textiles, craft practices, and materials indigenous to China and Los Angeles. Yoshie Sakai expands her video series KOKO’s Love with an installation simulating a pet store and a living room that recalls childhood disappointment surrounding getting a dog.
Joianne Bittle, Preserving Mass Extinction (installation view, John Michael Kohler Arts Center), 2010/2019; mixed media. Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
The Autotopographers installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019. Yoshie Sakai, Koko's Love: About Yuki 'Daydream Reality', 2019; mixed media. Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Azikiwe Mohammed offers T.T. Davis Park, which emphasizes public spaces where people of color can feel secure and acknowledged. Benjamin Larose’s work, titled Squall, uses snow globes to comment on his birth during a snowstorm and our lifelong relationship to the things we carry with us. And from the John Michael Kohler Art Center’s collection, a tableaux of Ray Yoshida’s home collection has been installed alongside one of his paintings, revealing the influence the artist drew from the objects and artworks he displayed and lived with in his apartment.
The Autotopographers installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019. Azikiwe Mohammed, T.T. Davis Park of New Davonhaime, 2019; mixed media. Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
The Autotopographers is on view through Sept. 15, 2019. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is located in Sheboygan. Admission is free. Arts Center hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit jmkac.org for holiday closings and to plan a visit.
