Henny Penny (detail), cast handmade paper, wax, and dye. Hand sewn. ©2011 Ann Hall Richards.
Thursday at the Surface Design Association conference was gallery day. We spent the afternoon being shuttled from one great exhibition to another. There were so many, I didn’t get to see all of them, but here are some highlights of the ones I did see.
Esperanza – Carolyn Kallenborn
Gordon Parks Gallery, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minn.
Through July 28, 2011
The works in Esperanza (“hope” in Spanish) come from a melding of prior exhibitions that share a common thread, all based on concepts Kallenborn became familiar with throughout her extensive time spent in Oaxaca, Mexico. Deseos comes from a desire to respond to feelings of hopelessness and fear with a message of healing. Cascada is an interactive installation piece in which viewers are invited to write on a silk rose petal a single word describing an admired characteristic of a person who has passed on, and exchange it for a painted stone from the installation. Ofrendas includes works inspired by the public ofrenda (“offering”), a kind of altar, and the milagro (“miracle”), a small charm left as a prayer for healing. The long banner-like pieces are made from handwoven cloth from the markets in Oaxaca, to which Kallenborn meticulously hand stitches beads, shells, silk flower petals, and other found objects. She says each object “is chosen and placed to reflect the specific emotion or desire expressed within the piece. The time and the attention in deliberately attaching each individual object is itself a meditative process. The finished pieces become the physical visual reminders of my intention.”
Flotsam and Jetsam – Erica Spitzer Rasmussen
Repetition Meditation Revelation – Ann Hall Richards
Concordia Gallery, Concordia University, St. Paul, Minn.
Through July 1, 2011
These two shows, exhibited concurrently in two different rooms of the gallery, were very different in concept but worked beautifully together due to symbiosis achieved through visually similar materials and process.
Ann Hall Richards uses “techniques that transform common objects into contemporary and contemplative works that invite and even challenge the viewer to consider not only the content, but also the process and choice of materials.” The aptly-named exhibition features works in which the artist takes a common object or an unrecognizable yet oddly familiar form, and repeats it until the units together create a new form compelling further consideration and contemplation.
Erica Spitzer Rasmussen’s works also use repetition and familiar objects, but her themes are more personal, based on childhood memories, experiences of family and motherhood, and cultural references. She says, “I sometimes find body-stories or body-experiences to be simultaneously comical and horrifying. It is often these extremes in emotional reactions that drive me to produce the work, in an attempt to better comprehend each situation.”
In the Garden of Earthquakes – Vernal Bogren Swift
AAW Gallery of Wood Art, Landmark Center, St. Paul, Minn.
Through June 26, 2011
Vernal Bogren Swift says she regards making art as a form of questioning. “I think of myself as much as a scientist as an artist. I suppose I would like to replace the word ‘artist’ with another term such as ‘visual thinker.’” Her exhibition consists of 9 batik panels depicting a narrative inspired by the ongoing tectonic plate movements between sea and land. The meticulously rendered drawings are whimsical yet beautiful, fascinating in detail. My only complaint about the installation was that most of the work was hung too high to get a good look at all of it. I would have liked to be able to get a better sense of the story within.
I did have a chance to talk with the artist briefly. She told me that with this work, she has only about a 40% success rate. I asked her what she does with the “failures” (the term would have to be relative, in my opinion), and she says she destroys them. As a quilter who challenges myself to use up everything and try to waste nothing, I was both very surprised and frankly somewhat horrified to hear this. I thought of all the lovely quilts that could be made from what I envision to be piles of lovely fabric. But I certainly respect her integrity in not wishing her work to be used in such a way.
Thank you for your wonderful coverage of the conference! It looks exceptional.
Thank you sooo much for showing such wonderful photos of the Ann Hall Richards’ and Erica Spitzer Rasmussen’s works. I missed those shows at the SDA and heard from so many people how great they were, and had searched the web looking for some evidence of them (maybe it was just too soon and the SDA posts weren’t up yet.) Your blogs are great from the conference!