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January 23, 2009

Art Faculty Exhibit at Phillips Academy

The Phillips Academy Art Faculty Exhibit is on display until the second of February, 2009. Pictured here are a few of my pieces that are in the exhibition.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
ON WORK


The mixed-media prints in this exhibit at Phillips Academy are from a series in which I unpack my experiences of clearing out my uncle’s house after he passed away.

Over two years time, I helped my father empty this same home where he grew up as a child in the 1930’s. His family resided in the four-apartment house for over a century and they amassed many treasures.


Depression-era saving practices filled crannies and corners and I harvested them—in closets, the attic, under beds and in the basement. The home pulsed with material tokens. Alters for a cousin’s young death, signifiers of an aunt’s Alzheimer’s, and my uncle’s inventions, waited besides boxes of Wright’s rickrack and purple pompoms.

I paused—along the collar of a dress my uncle pinned a wrinkled note to remind his wife to “wear the long slip with this one.” In the attic I wondered why the Singer was set up, needle and thread through broadcloth still. History emerged from closets and beneath tired peeled wallpaper.
These things are charged.


Disentangling findings and feelings in the prints, I compiled text and images from letters, photographs and books I unearthed while cleaning house. Digging more deeply, I now know these relatives more intimately after touching their belongings—their lives. In this series, I breathe new life into the potentially discarded.

(All art work is property of the artist and may not be reproduced without he
r consent. Thank you.)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think i've seen these at the Essex Art Center, but I want to get to the Gelb to see again. Dad, too. I liked the text about cleaning out the W.Warren house. Nice writing! I think Perry Plouff would like to see this. I'll either forward to him or give you his e-mail. xxoo mom