Review
2016 Florida Prize
by Leah Sandler
The Florida Prize in Contemporary
Art, now in its third year, is an initiative of the Orlando Museum of
Art. The Florida Prize presents an
exhibition of ten artists living and
working in the state, with one artist
selected as the winner of the prize.
Through themes of technology and
human geography, this year’s exhibition unites the diverse practices of
Anthea Behm, Adler Guerrier, María
Martínez-Cañas, Noelle Mason, Ernesto Oroza, Matt Roberts, Dawn
Roe, Kyle Trowbridge, Michael Vasquez and Sergio Vega. Noelle Mason,
from Tampa, was named this year’s
prize winner.
Noelle Mason presented selections
from two bodies of work for the
show: Human Hunting (small, cotton
stitcheries and large, wool tapestryrugs examining the effects of vision
technologies on perceptions of
undocumented immigrants) and Love
Letters/White Flag (vintage white
handkerchiefs embroidered with entries from the journals of Eric Harris,
one of the two students responsible
for the
Columbine High School
shooting). Both bodies of work employ two-dimensional, appropriated
imagery presented as three-dimensional textile objects created through
processes associated with craft, domesticity, and the handmade. Mason’s
use of these specific images implicates the power dynamic of surveillance in conditions of institutional
dehumanization and objectification,
from the American education system to immigration enforcement. The
warmth of labor and craft juxtaposed
with the eerie coldness of Mason’s
imagery imposes a sense of discord
in the simultaneous visibility and distance created by the use of visualization technologies.
The relevance and ubiquity of these
technologies in our contemporary
experience is paralleled throughout
the show, in the work of other artists
as well as in the name of the galleries. Two of the galleries containing
the Florida Prize show are, ironically,
named after museum sponsor Lockheed Martin, one of the companies
responsible for the development of
the technologies Mason takes her imagery from.
The effects of technology on human perception and experience is
a theme also found in the work of
nominees Kyle Trowbridge, Matt
Roberts, Anthea Behm and Dawn
Roe. Trowbridge’s saturated and
colorful QR codes painted on canvas reveal playful hidden messages
when scanned with a smartphone.
Matt Roberts’ downloadable app The
Strangers (a collaboration with poet
and Stetson University professor
Terri Witek) allo