Strange, quirky, almost ridiculous, the new photographs of Elizabeth Bryant are at once complex and simplistic, choreographed and crude.  Using the Japanese art of ikebana flower arrangement as a jumping off point, Bryant's carefully crafted scenarios present a rabbit-hole reality that both enchants and disorients the viewer.

Ikebana flower arrangement began as a ritual offering to the spirits of the dead.  Over centuries, this ritual crystallized into a formal and rigorous art form that continues to be practiced today.  The essence of the classical arrangement is a triangular construction representing heaven, earth and man.  The vessel for the arrangement is chosen for it's aesthetic under-statement;  twigs, leaves, and an intentionally spare use of blooms characterize the refined expression that is ikebana. 

Bryant seems to take this art form and turn it inside out - she wrings the solemnity out of the ritual and replaces it with an ironical and kitschy play.  Cobbling together abandoned sculptures found in the ceramic studios at CSULA, mass-produced backdrops of wallpaper nature scenes, and her own ikebana of fruits, blooms and other natural ephemera, Bryant's irreverence is slyly sophisticated and genuinely charming.  In viewing these photographs, one cannot help but imagine Bryant's process in setting up these scenes.  Instead of the drop of dew so precious in ikebana, one is certain that tape balls and glue guns, alligator clips and twisty wires are the underpinnings of these arrangements.

In addition to Bryant's works, Eve Luckring has provided two text pieces for this show: one running on either side of a corner in the gallery and the other etched into the glass front of the gallery.  Both texts are poems written in the Japanese forms of haiku and tanka that Luckring developed into installation pieces.  Her Blazing Sun piece found on the front of the gallery is haunting and vivid, and apparently takes on a 3-D quality when seen in the mid-day sun of Los Angeles.

The final element of the Bryant/Luckring collaboration is a small chapbook titled Today's Forecasts which combine Luckring's poetry and Bryant's imagery.  Set against each other, the poetry and photographs create a wry and witty comment on cultural hybridism and artistic interchange.

This exhibition is on view at SolwayJones through April 19, 2008.

(Images top to bottom:  Elizabeth Bryant, Spotted Dinosaur, 2008, archival injet print, courtesy of the Artist & SolwayJones Gallery.  Elizabeth Bryant, Medusa's Head, 2007, archival injet print, courtesy of the Artist and SolwayJones Gallery; Eve Luckring, Blazing Sun, unique-variable dimensions, courtesy of the Artist and SolwayJones Gallery.)