Central High School Register
Art displays stars in very unique way
By Emily Harrison
Little lines of varying width, underlined by numbers, create barcodes. Barcodes upon barcodes arranged by value to create faces of well-known media, religious and political figures.
Oprah, George Bush, Ozzy Osborne and Jesus are among the various faces represented in Scott Blake's art work.
Blake's art show was held at the newly-opened Bemis Underground.
Senior Dan Crane attended the show twice, the second time he went to bring Blake more barcodes.
In the advertisements for the show, Blake asked people who were planning on attending to bring barcodes from products they had around the house.
To those that brought them he gave small versions of one of his works. The second time Crane came to see the show he got a chane to talk with Blake.
"He talked to me about his computer programs and the messages in his works," he said.
On Saturdays, Blake was available in the gallery and gave walk-throughs to visitors.
Amy Heney, a student teacher in the art department, said seeing a show with the artist there to explain his work is much better than going to an exhibit and not understanding it.
Heney said she would recommend students so see any show, especially if it was an opening.
"If you are making art, you need to know about it," Heney said.
Heney made sure she saw the exhibit herself.
Sophmore Bailey Jensen also attended the exhibit.
She said she thought Blake's idea to use barcodes was very original and favorite part of the exhibit was small room that would read barcodes that were scanned in it.
Numerous barcodes showing the 10 commandments and other reilgious saying lined the walls.
Blake said he liked making little rooms like this one beacuse they were like the forts he used to make as a kid.
Much of Blake's work centers around religion.
That was one of the things Heney noticced about his work.
"He took something plain and obvious and made it beautiful as well as contemplative and religious," she said.
Crane said he felt there were two prominent themes in Blake's work: commercialism and religion.
He said many of the people in Blake's portraits were corporate criminals.
Barcodes create interesting outlet.
Blake said he felt it was interesting how he knew the people in his portraits without ever meeting them. Even though he has never met Oprah, he said he knows what she looks like and how her voice sounds.
Blake said people live their lives through machines like televisions and computers.
"We know what's on TV," he said, "We are living life through machines that are lifeless."
Blake said one problem with society was people idolizing other people more than themselves. Blake's favorite painting was an illuminated portrait of Elvis. The barcodes, taken from his albums, were printed on acetate and lit from behind to create a glowing rendition of the "King."
He said the piece reminds him of backlit advertisements at bus stops he used to stand by. He said he liked standing close enough so all he could see was the dot patterns.
"They're just barcodes," he said.
A mirror and hubcap were hung on posts. Blake said it was easier to see the faces in the reflection. Blake said his artwork itself was like his own mirror, although a biased mirror, in which he reflects the world.
Around the corner from Elvis was a portrait of Madonna, one of the few color portraits in the show. Instead of barcodes, the work is comprised of the covers of her movies.
The portrait, which Madonna had actually seen herslef, was based off of an Herb Ritz photograph. Much of Blake's work is compilations of other images.
"My work is a lot like hip-hop sampling," Blake said.
Another work shows a portrait of Jesus was a progression of pixels. Blake said he wanted to know how many pixels it took to make Jesus.
When he talked about the piece, he pulled out small wallet sized hologram of Jesus. Blake said he bought the card at a gas station to make change. It was the first thing he ever scanned into a computer.
Jeremy Stern, the gallery coordinator, said those barcodes gave Blake a strong visual identity.
Stern said if the gallery was going to have opnly on solo exhibition this year, Blake would be the one.
Blake's show at the Bemis Underground was the first at the gallery.
The works for the gallery are chosen from proposals. These proposals can be from anyone, for any kind of exhibit.
"We are selecting curators," Stern said.
These curators are then given a $750 allowance and must organize and advertizse for their own shows.
Stern said organizing shows this way was a risk.
"There is always the possibility that it could dall on its face." He said.
Stern said the gallery was a sort of incubator for artists, almost like an extension of school.
He also said he hopes the artists and others whoa re involved in the underground can use the experience they gain to further the art scene in Omaha.
"I hope people who are involved go and do things in the community," Stern said.
Blake uses a program that he wrote for Photoshop that arranges barcodes according to their value and places them to imitate the gradients of a surface, such as a face. Blake said he liked the organization of it.
"Every barcodes is in its place," he said.
Blake's work shows similarities to Lichtenstein's dot paintings and Andy Warhol's portraits. He said Warhol was actually the first to paint barcodes, in his painting of Campbell's soup cans.
Blake said he saw Cambell's soup cans in the gallery in Wahrol's painting before he saw it in the store. When he saw it in the store, he begged his mother to buy him Campbell's chicken soup, even though he was a vegetarian.
Blake said art today is too decorative. He said he feels his artowkr is different.
"It irritates instead of appeals to the masses," Blake said.
Originally printed March 23, 2005 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA