Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes’ New Solo Show at Koplin Del Rio Gallery Examines Vessels, Language, and More

Entering Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes’ new show, you’re first greeted by a collection of slate-gray sculptures on high pedestals. They rest upon clear plexiglass bases, which juxtapose the clay-like material of the works themselves — bits of discarded trash that Alley-Barnes repurposed and improvisationally shaped and contorted into dynamic sculptures.

These works — part of a series he calls Terra Nada — are both recognizable and unrecognizable. Like hieroglyphs made three dimensional, stretching bodies, sacred jars, algorithms in motion. Drawing references from African and pre-Columbian architecture and mid-century design, the objects themselves radiate energy. Though they are literally made of familiar things that we throw away, like egg cartons, boxes, papers, and the like, Alley-Barnes transforms them into something unfamiliar, greater than the literal sum of their parts. What is old is new is old is new is old, etc.

“The Terra Nada works are a continuation of venerative practices that have been going on since human beings reconciled that there was a necessity for them,” said Alley-Barnes in a recent interview.

These sculptures are part of “Arįa of the Bot and the Beholder,” Alley-Barnes’ new solo exhibition at Koplin Del Rio art gallery in Georgetown. It pulls together several facets of the multimedia artist’s sculptural and public art practices from Terra Nada to a smaller-scale reproduction of a commissioned public art piece for the Washington State Convention Center. All grapple with language, ritual, environment, and relationships.

“I find him to be really drawn to architecture, the field and discipline … But also thinking about architecture in terms of — how do we construct something that allows for a way of being or a way of living within or around it?” said UW Professor Kemi Adeyemi, founder of the Black Embodiments Studio and a friend of Alley-Barnes. “Across his objects, he’s asking that question and … his reference points are very Afro-diasporic. His timelines are tinged toward the ancient, while always breathing a fresh life into it.”

The title of the show contains words that translate to “vessel” in Igbo, Creole, and Danish (so it reads “Vessel of the vessel and the vessel”), a reference to the nature of his work and art being a receptacle for energy, creativity, and interpretation. Undergirding “Arįa” is the idea of “refuse alchemy,” a philosophy Alley-Barnes coined years ago that refers to his practice of taking discarded items and renewing them into objects in different forms.

“I don’t think that waste in of itself is functionless — it served a specific purpose and it is then altered and transformed into another purpose,” Alley-Barnes reflected. “I think there’s an onus on us to figure out ways to create or morph things that we’re already presented with, as opposed to making more new things to occupy space.”

That sensibility is most clearly seen in his Terra Nada sculptures, but also in his PELT series which are composed of textiles and clothing Alley-Barnes sourced during his years as a vintage clothing redistributor. Inspired by the satirical cartoons drawn by his father, Curtis, and textiles stitched by his mother, Royal, each PELT sculpture is an exploration of archetype and caricature.

For example, “PORTRAIT OF A ****IST NEIGHBOR, or BEST-US BOAST-US” is constructed like a figure: A mid-20th century letterman’s jacket with its sleeves in its pockets is paired with a Chinese children’s good luck hat from the late 19th century and balloon-like pants made of a vintage American flag. The sneakers? Nike Air Rifts from the 2000s (Alley-Barnes also lists “incantation, unguents, DNA, antique filaments & fibers” as materials, reflecting the artist’s own contribution in putting the piece together as well as each garment’s history). Our cultural understanding of the letterman’s jacket (jock), American flag (patriot), and sneakers (“rift” is literally in the title) helps fill in the “****IST” in the title however we see fit.

“It’s an examination of someone who does live very close to me,” Alley-Barnes said. “But it’s also an examination of nationalism and jingoism and any number of other four letter word ‘-isms’ that are afoot at the present.”

One of the remaining works in the show might seem familiar to those who spend lots of time near the Washington State Convention Center. Alley-Barnes’ piece “seen, scent, sense” adorns a parking garage on 9th Avenue, only appearing as whole whenever the garage door is closed. For “Arįa,” he scaled the piece — a photo of a sculpture printed on vellum and surrounded by paper collage — to poster size. Also included in the exhibition is an unrealized study of a public work called “there is an In between,” a flat angular sculpture composed of clear sheets of Lexan and plexiglass. With this piece, Alley-Barnes imagines a better, more interesting future for the population’s experience of public art in Seattle.

“I would really love for there to be pieces that were more dynamic in their relationship to light, in their relationship to shadow, and could be experienced multiple ways at different times of day,” he said, adding that he’d want it to be rendered in leaded glass at four or five times the scale.

Above all, Alley-Barnes’ work asks the viewer for the utmost attention — to our collective culture, bodies, and dreams. There’s always more to uncover.

Catch Alley-Barnes’ show at Koplin Del Rio in Georgetown from now till Oct. 26.