Hera
Gallery Examines Artistic Perspectives on Today's Events With
its Current Exhibition....
9/11/01
Juror, Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art, RISD Museum
Saturday, November 17-Saturday, December 15, 2001
Opening Reception:Saturday, November
17, 5-7 PM Gallery Talk:"Art in The Aftermath,"
Rebecca Leuchak, Asst. Prof. of Art & Architectural History,
Roger Williams University, Thursday, December 6, 2001, 7 PM
Image:
Bryan Steinberg, "One Drop Will Do Ya," ceramic, 2001
-Wakefield,
RI- Hera
Gallery examines artistic perspectives on today's events with
its current exhibition, 9.11.01.
Hera
is a non-profit, artist run gallery that provides a forum
for dialogue between contemporary artists and the general
public.
About
70 New England painters, photographers, sculptors, designers,
filmmakers, and students submitted more than 100 artworks
responding to the events of September 11 and its aftermath.
These artworks, stacked floor to ceiling by gallery staff
and volunteers, presented a daunting challenge to juror Judith
Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the RISD Museum
in Providence, who selected more than 30 artworks. In conjunction
with the exhibition, Rebecca Leuchak, Asst. Prof. of Art &
Architecture at Roger Williams University will give a lecture
entitled "Art in the Aftermath," held at Hera on
Thursday, December 6, at 7 PM. According to Leuchak, the lecture
will tie today's events to historical moments when "seismic
events impact on the creative process," resulting in
dramatic artistic changes and responses.
Hera
will donate its 25 percent commission on any works sold to
the relief
efforts.Work below: Francoise McAree,oil
on canvas, 2001
An
Overwhelming Response from the Community
Filled to capacity with paintings resting against walls, sculptures
sitting on utility tables, and pedestals strewn across a barely
visible floor, Tannenbaum, Gallery Director Katherine Veneman,
Hera Board member Barbara Pagh, and volunteer Jennifer Madriaga
surveyed enough works to fill a medium-sized museum gallery
on Tuesday night. The vibrantly riotous collection of artworks
seemed a haunting and fitting reminder of the utter devastation
of America's post September 11 environment. Later that evening,
with about 70 eliminated artworks safely hauled to the gallery's
storage area, the structure of the exhibition had emerged
from the chaos. Tannenbaum met the difficult, unenviable task
of selecting works that best represented the local "art
world."
Hera
Board and Artist Member Barbara Pagh said, "Mentally,
it will be hard telling artists they weren't accepted."
What was perhaps most striking was the diversity of artworks,
and range of human response to turbulence and interpretation
of artistic media.
Gallery
Director Katherine Veneman said, "Each artist held nothing
back in creating these works-each person poured their skill,
heart, and energy to create a record of and response to the
destruction of 9/11/01."
"What
was striking amongst the unedited artworks on Tuesday night
was not their commonality in terms of imagery (many drew on
national symbols such as the American flag), but their individualism,"
Veneman added.
Professional
artists of all types, high school students, dedicated amateurs,
and those people simply moved by the trauma of 9/11/01 and
the subsequent political turbulence, were moved to create
art. Moreover, these artists were willing to share their most
personal reflections with the art-going public. Most of the
participating artists are from Rhode Island, Connecticut,
and Massachusetts, and a small number represent displaced
New Yorkers, seeking sanctuary in Rhode Island.
Two
Themes: Initial Response to Tragedy and Political Commentary
Two
thematic currents emerge in this exhibition. Much of
the submitted work reflected the initial reactions of
a national community in shock; bearing sometimes awkward
titles conveying horror and disbelief, such as Have
a Nice Flight, Missing, Shattered Dreams, We Walked
for Hours Around the City, Those Who Witnessed, No Window
on the World, Sunny Day Wreckage, and simply, Despair.
Portraying the sorrowful reactions to what was for the
most part an event experienced on TV, these works reveal
not a dimly reflected empathy for New Yorkers and Washingtonians,
but an intensely personal sense of grief, horror and
loss.
Image:
Jennifer Iwasyk, Sunny Day Wreckage, fabric collage,
2001
One
of the most poignant works of this type is Colleen
Joy Carreiro's Missing, an understated,
almost minimalist painting. A slowly swirling, even-tempered
blue mist that can only be described as "sad"
comes in and out of focus, while in the foreground,
sharply delicate brushstrokes conjure an image of medical
flat lines. Recently relocated from NYC to Providence,
painter Francoise McAree
displays a powerful, seemingly abstract diptych. In
a stark metaphor, two columnar canvases painted in soft
flesh tones contain brutal, festering dark holes, at
the approximate level at which the planes hit the towers.
In
the two months since the tragedy, as the chain of current
events spirals further away but inevitably back towards
that trigger point of September 11, New England seem
to have barely caught their breath. Works reflecting
overt political messages of patriotism, criticism of
national policies, and anti-war sentiments were represented
in the submissions and in the final selections. Included
in the exhibition is political cartoonist Jim
Bush's montage, Never Forget, a montage
which includes a drawing of the backsides of two men,
wearing overalls labeled "NYPD" and FDNY.
The other three drawings are proudly patriotic representations,
such as a huge bald eagle with the ubiquitous American
flag emerging in a gesture of triumphant resurrection
from the smoldering city.
Reflecting
a somewhat similar sentiment is painter Jonathan
McPhillips' large multimedia painting, Burnt…But
Not Broken, which depicts the Statue of Liberty
simultaneously submerged in and rising from a cloud
of convincingly murky smoke, while in the bottom corner
of the picture, the silhouette of a tiny, defiant fireman
raises his axe to shake his angry fist.
McPhillips
said, "I felt the need to create large and fast,
as if time was running out, or my ability to make art
was being threatened by an outside force, and my statement
had to be bold and efficient."
On
the other end of the spectrum is Anne
Loyer's Justice Not Retribution, an
equally large painting on paper in which wildly colored,
skeletal specters armed with pointy daggers and airplanes
fly at each other amidst a jetting flame. In the background
the misty, dusty city skyline hovers fretfully, while
in the foreground, a text table with words etched into
Roman letters remind us, "Justice is Not Retribution,"
and lists adjectives differentiating the two terms.
Making perhaps one of the boldest, and certainly the
most monumental statement in the exhibition is Bryan
Steinberg's One Drop Will Do Ya, which
is a fat, four-feet-tall cast ceramic jug, oozing pea
green dribbles of unidentifiable toxic slime and marked
with the nuclear fallout shelter symbol many of us remember
from our Cold War school days. The smallest works in
the exhibition, Aline Gittleman's
painstakingly crafted brooches, are complex and ambiguous
depictions of flags. A far cry from cheery, eye-wateringly
patriotic emblems briskly snapping in the breeze, these
flags appear both unyielding and slightly dizzying,
firmly and skillfully rendered from somber slate and
silver.
Rhode
Island and Beyond: A Moment of Flux
Carefully examining each artwork in the sea of highly
charged works, Tannenbaum included student work along
with pieces by noted local artists; explicit photos
are juxtaposed with abstract paintings. The result of
this process is an exhibition that captures a state
of flux, a moment in which our ideas about national
and cultural values have come into focus on the local
level. There is no doubt that every artist in the exhibition
has felt personally transformed by current events. The
influence of September 11's tragedy and subsequent total
shift in national climate remain to be determined, but
this moment in American history remains unique, a future
landmark, currently free from the effects of historical
perspective. This exhibition examines that moment, in
all its aspects, for better or for worse.
Hera
Gallery is handicapped accessible and this event is
free and open to the public. Free parking is available.
Gallery hours are Wed-Fri (1-5) and Sat (10-4). Call
401.789-1488 or visit www.heragallery.org for details
and directions.
Work below: Francoise McAree,oil
on canvas, 2001
Two
thematic currents emerge in this exhibition. Much of
the submitted work reflected the initial reactions of
a national community in shock; bearing sometimes awkward
titles conveying horror and disbelief, such as Have
a Nice Flight, Missing, Shattered Dreams, We Walked
for Hours Around the City, Those Who Witnessed, No Window
on the World, Sunny Day Wreckage, and simply, Despair.
Portraying the sorrowful reactions to what was for the
most part an event experienced on TV, these works reveal
not a dimly reflected empathy for New Yorkers and Washingtonians,
but an intensely personal sense of grief, horror and
loss.