Subtle, Satiric, Subversive: The Sculpture of Nikki Moser
That Fracking has won the battle over the minds and wallets of many in Northeastern Pennsylvania (not to mention in parts of the entire United States) is a forgone conclusion. The land has been optioned, the contracts have been signed, and the checks have been delivered; the long-term “interest” on those checks is another story, for another day; however, the past due notice is coming. Instead of just sulking in a sludge pond, Keystone College art faculty sculptor Nikki Moser is doing her best to highlight the absurdity of the entire Marcellus Shale, house of cards economic system by joining the party, a party that she freely admits she is complicit in on many levels. It is here in the acceptance where Moser’s satiric work shines.
Attempting satire is never an easy proposition. The work either succeeds marvelously or fails at the same accord. The artist must allow the satire to completely control to the extent the viewer, while knowing it is a satire, must also be sold on the presentation’s seriousness. The satire must be so complete that the issues arising from the viewer must be questioned to the extent that they are not even sure themselves of the answers, or in many instances the questions. Documentary film director Michael Moore may have said it best when asked to describe satire he stated,” You can’t debate satire, either you get it or you don’t.”
Mosers’ satiric tourist trinket kiosk is so accomplished in its persuasive power that the wagon itself, honed to the finest detail, begs to be set-up at many of the Marcellus Shale drilling sites around the state; maybe that should be the next step in Moser’s process. Liberating the cart from the gallery setting would not only free the satiric parody of the established gallery confines, but also become an un-natural, natural installation; I would even be tempted to buy one of the souvenirs.
Moser’s work is that precise without appearing pushy; that detailed without appearing overtly dramatic, and that strong without drifting into self-righteousness. Moser is also adept at accepting her own connection to this latest environmental catastrophe; she readily admits that she is not without guilt in the complacency of the process. She has stated that the natural gas released by the Fracking Process is piped into her own home, and there’s little that she can really do about it. One thing she refuses to do, however is just hold others more accountable than her.
Many satiric artists often separate themselves from the problem they are satirizing by falling into accusation; Moser does not. She does not blame her neighbors who have been “forced” (through the economic depressions that have affected so many families in NEPA) to accept the economic proposals offered by the natural gas companies, something many landowners do not have the choice to refuse. They can either accept the company checks and stay on their now contaminated land or refuse the funds, risk loosing their land, and have the banks either deliver the option to the next buyer or exercise it themselves; a typical catch 22 at work. Moser knows this, and does not dwell on the choice; she highlights the linear aspects of the problem. She probes the innate need for “souvenirs” of places we have been, events we have been a part of in our lives, and the human need for a remembrance of time and place, even if the souvenirs are of a tragedy.
Nikki Moser’s sculptural cart is one of the finest sculptural pieces I have seen in some time. And as much as I abhor the work of American multi-media artist Jeff Koons, Moser’s work shares some of his sensibilities, although on a more sublime, subtle level. Her work forced a personal re-examination of my response to Koon’s overtly romantic puppies and planters, altering many of my feelings toward his kitschy, satiric output, - what more could any artist ask?
I really do expect to see that kiosk on the side of the road with Moser manning it. I will stop and buy one of her coffee cups with a drilling well on it, a baby jumper with a Marcellus Logo stamped on it or a post card with a happy, 1950s style “Welcome to the Marcellus” saying. Moser has fashioned a work so complete in its absurdity, so complete in its outrageousness, and so complete in its impact that I want a picture of the Cabot Oil Company executives as they stop and buy their husbands, wives or family members remembrances of a Pennsylvania they helped destroy in the process of their greed, misunderstanding the desired affect delivered by Moser’s output, thus playing the unwitting part of Nero as NEPA burns from the inside.
Nikki Moser is a sculptor who, even though she recently received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, does not need a piece of parchment to prove that she is a serious talent. Work like this does not germinate in the classrooms of a university, it is cultivated in a mind that has no choice but to dwell on the stimuli presented and react. NEPA should be proud to have an artist of her status in our backyard, teaching our children and sowing the seeds of community involvement and reaction to problems that affect all of us on a local, national, and eventual world level.
James Lansing, Keystone College, Linder Gallery Director
M.A. Seton Hall University; M.Ed. University of Arizona
That Fracking has won the battle over the minds and wallets of many in Northeastern Pennsylvania (not to mention in parts of the entire United States) is a forgone conclusion. The land has been optioned, the contracts have been signed, and the checks have been delivered; the long-term “interest” on those checks is another story, for another day; however, the past due notice is coming. Instead of just sulking in a sludge pond, Keystone College art faculty sculptor Nikki Moser is doing her best to highlight the absurdity of the entire Marcellus Shale, house of cards economic system by joining the party, a party that she freely admits she is complicit in on many levels. It is here in the acceptance where Moser’s satiric work shines.
Attempting satire is never an easy proposition. The work either succeeds marvelously or fails at the same accord. The artist must allow the satire to completely control to the extent the viewer, while knowing it is a satire, must also be sold on the presentation’s seriousness. The satire must be so complete that the issues arising from the viewer must be questioned to the extent that they are not even sure themselves of the answers, or in many instances the questions. Documentary film director Michael Moore may have said it best when asked to describe satire he stated,” You can’t debate satire, either you get it or you don’t.”
Mosers’ satiric tourist trinket kiosk is so accomplished in its persuasive power that the wagon itself, honed to the finest detail, begs to be set-up at many of the Marcellus Shale drilling sites around the state; maybe that should be the next step in Moser’s process. Liberating the cart from the gallery setting would not only free the satiric parody of the established gallery confines, but also become an un-natural, natural installation; I would even be tempted to buy one of the souvenirs.
Moser’s work is that precise without appearing pushy; that detailed without appearing overtly dramatic, and that strong without drifting into self-righteousness. Moser is also adept at accepting her own connection to this latest environmental catastrophe; she readily admits that she is not without guilt in the complacency of the process. She has stated that the natural gas released by the Fracking Process is piped into her own home, and there’s little that she can really do about it. One thing she refuses to do, however is just hold others more accountable than her.
Many satiric artists often separate themselves from the problem they are satirizing by falling into accusation; Moser does not. She does not blame her neighbors who have been “forced” (through the economic depressions that have affected so many families in NEPA) to accept the economic proposals offered by the natural gas companies, something many landowners do not have the choice to refuse. They can either accept the company checks and stay on their now contaminated land or refuse the funds, risk loosing their land, and have the banks either deliver the option to the next buyer or exercise it themselves; a typical catch 22 at work. Moser knows this, and does not dwell on the choice; she highlights the linear aspects of the problem. She probes the innate need for “souvenirs” of places we have been, events we have been a part of in our lives, and the human need for a remembrance of time and place, even if the souvenirs are of a tragedy.
Nikki Moser’s sculptural cart is one of the finest sculptural pieces I have seen in some time. And as much as I abhor the work of American multi-media artist Jeff Koons, Moser’s work shares some of his sensibilities, although on a more sublime, subtle level. Her work forced a personal re-examination of my response to Koon’s overtly romantic puppies and planters, altering many of my feelings toward his kitschy, satiric output, - what more could any artist ask?
I really do expect to see that kiosk on the side of the road with Moser manning it. I will stop and buy one of her coffee cups with a drilling well on it, a baby jumper with a Marcellus Logo stamped on it or a post card with a happy, 1950s style “Welcome to the Marcellus” saying. Moser has fashioned a work so complete in its absurdity, so complete in its outrageousness, and so complete in its impact that I want a picture of the Cabot Oil Company executives as they stop and buy their husbands, wives or family members remembrances of a Pennsylvania they helped destroy in the process of their greed, misunderstanding the desired affect delivered by Moser’s output, thus playing the unwitting part of Nero as NEPA burns from the inside.
Nikki Moser is a sculptor who, even though she recently received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, does not need a piece of parchment to prove that she is a serious talent. Work like this does not germinate in the classrooms of a university, it is cultivated in a mind that has no choice but to dwell on the stimuli presented and react. NEPA should be proud to have an artist of her status in our backyard, teaching our children and sowing the seeds of community involvement and reaction to problems that affect all of us on a local, national, and eventual world level.
James Lansing, Keystone College, Linder Gallery Director
M.A. Seton Hall University; M.Ed. University of Arizona