Art Review: Indulge in circular thinking with 'Whirl'

"Whirl" by Terri Jones is at David Lusk Gallery through July 30.

We expect an art of chaste and enigmatic power from Terri Jones, and she fulfills that expectation in "Whirl," her exhibition at David Lusk Gallery through July 30. She also indulges a streak of playfulness -- or serious play -- unusual for her typically contemplative mode.

Confronting the visitor to the gallery's expansive and dimly lit front room are six large graphite-on-vellum drawings of circles, simply framed, and heaps of black hoops placed about the gallery or leaning against the walls. The black hoops, made of industrial irrigation tubing, inevitably remind one of hula hoops, not a trademarked term, by the way, and such they are called by the artist.

So, circles and circles. What's going on?

As you approach the drawings, what appear from a distance as solid lines in the shapes of circles open themselves into narrow and tight circular forms of uniform handwriting that seem impossible to decipher because they consist of a continuous flow of words written on top of each other. These circles, then, of "word-lines" would appear -- I will use the words "appear to be" and "seem" quite a bit in this review -- to be the product of automatic writing or some sort of deeply private language that perhaps exceeds the language and vocabulary of the public sphere of literature and discourse.

And all of the circles in the drawings are not complete. Some are long arcs or half-circles or quarter circles that seem to exist on their own and yet in cannily and calmly poised equilibrium with the other circles or part-circles on the empty white plane. Only one drawing -- they are all titled "Whirl" -- depicts totally symmetrical circles, and it feels like the weakest piece in the show. The other drawings, those that offer circles or arcs of circles in some invisibly tensile relationship, seem stronger and paradoxically more resolved.

The hoops, of course, are all complete circles and, as was witnessed at the exhibition opening reception last week, perfectly capable of being hula-hooped.

I'll admit that the first time I saw this show I was dismissive of the black hoops; I even used the word "inconsequential." Shame on me! Jones is an intensely thoughtful and intuitive artist, and while one may occasionally question the success of her efforts, as would be the case with any artist, one should not impugn her sincerity, tact and mindfulness.

The hoops put into action what the title of the pieces and the exhibition states: they whirl. As much as the circles and part-circles drawn on the flat planes of vellum seem to embody some sort of physical and poetic vibrancy on their own and in relationship to each other, the truth is that they are static, mysterious, pristine, achingly precise shapes that starkly and immovably define themselves against a blindingly white void. The message of the circles, with their irrevocable chains of alchemical and strangely oracular glyphs, both infinite and finite, is the lesson that all language bears: we are nothing without the context of immutability and transcendence.

On the other hand, a friend told me that she recognized the words of a poem in the spidery density of an arc in one piece, so maybe I'm just, you know, talking in circles.

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Terri Jones, "Whirl;" with Leslie Holt, "Hello Pablo/Goodbye Liz"

David Lusk Gallery, 4540 Poplar Ave. in Laurelwood, through July 30. Call 767-3800.

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